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Kiawah Island, SC

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Kiawah Island is a very small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of South Carolina. With a population of 1,988 people and just one neighborhood, Kiawah Island is the 138th largest community in South Carolina.

Kiawah Island home prices are not only among the most expensive in South Carolina, but Kiawah Island real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Kiawah Island is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 99.14% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Kiawah Island is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Kiawah Island who work in healthcare (23.83%), business and financial occupations (22.97%), and management occupations (16.23%).

Of important note, Kiawah Island is also a town of artists. Kiawah Island has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Kiawah Island’s character.

Also of interest is that Kiawah Island has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 51.81% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Kiawah Island is a major vacation destination. Much of the town’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Kiawah Island’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.

Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, Kiawah Island is worth considering.

One of the nice things about Kiawah Island is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

One downside of living in Kiawah Island is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Kiawah Island, the average commute to work is 36.02 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the town, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.

Even though Kiawah Island is a smaller town, it has many people who hop on public transportation – mostly taxis for their daily commute to work. Typically, these people are commuting to good jobs in the surrounding cities.

Demographics

If knowledge is power, Kiawah Island is a pretty powerful place. 87.40% of the adults in Kiawah Island have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Kiawah Island in 2018 was $191,900, which is wealthy relative to South Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $767,600 for a family of four.

The people who call Kiawah Island home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Kiawah Island residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Kiawah Island include English, Irish, German, Italian, and French.

The most common language spoken in Kiawah Island is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and French.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Kiawah Island, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of. One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.

In addition, owner-occupied real estate dominates the neighborhood. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout research, the percentage of residential real estate occupied by its owner is higher here than in 99.3% of neighborhoods in America. Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 73.6% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.8% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.

People

If you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 0.7% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.

In addition, priests and therapists would like to think they know the secrets to a truly successful marriage, but according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the folks of the neighborhood may actually hold the key. 82.7% of its residents are married, which is a higher percentage than is found in 99.9% of the neighborhoods in America.

Also, a majority of the adults in the neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for South Carolina by NeighborhoodScout's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 99.8% of the neighborhoods in South Carolina. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for active retirees and urban sophisticates.

Finally, the rate of college educated adults in the neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 87.4% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 33.7% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

Modes of Transportation

In the neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 51.8% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 99.9% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.

Occupations

Executives, managers and professionals make up 85.5% of the workforce in the neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 99.8% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Armenian and English ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Armenian ancestry and 26.1% have English ancestry.

The Neighbors

There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Kiawah Island are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the neighborhood, 85.5% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 8.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (5.4%), and 2.2% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.9% of households. Some people also speak Polish (5.3%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the neighborhood in Kiawah Island, SC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (26.1%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (19.8%), and residents who report German roots (18.8%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (9.5%), along with some French ancestry residents (6.6%), among others.

Getting to Work

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (54.1% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (28.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (15.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Real Estate includes:
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Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
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Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
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Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
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Schools include:
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