Charleston vs Isle of Palms

A side-by-side comparison of Charleston and Isle of Palms: population, income, housing, and more.

Charleston and Isle of Palms are places in South Carolina. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Charleston has the higher population (152,014 vs 4,350 in Isle of Palms). Isle of Palms has the higher median household income ($148,029 vs $90,038 in Charleston). Isle of Palms has the higher median home value ($1,192,200 vs $469,100 in Charleston).

Population, income & housing

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
Population	152,014	4,350
Median age	36.1 yrs	54.2 yrs
Median household income	$90,038	$148,029
Median home value	$469,100	$1,192,200
Median gross rent	$1,632	$3,236
Housing units	75,826	4,485
Homeownership rate	55.6%	90.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.7%	69.7%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	1.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
Population	135,257 → 152,014 (+12.4%)	4,360 → 4,350 (-0.2%)
Median household income	$68,438 → $90,038 (+31.6%)	$122,228 → $148,029 (+21.1%)
Median home value	$330,600 → $469,100 (+41.9%)	$852,700 → $1,192,200 (+39.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,257 → $1,632 (+29.8%)	$1,994 → $3,236 (+62.3%)

Charleston

Population

135,257152,014

Median household income

$68,438$90,038

Median home value

$330,600$469,100

Median gross rent

$1,257$1,632

Isle of Palms

Population

4,3604,350

Median household income

$122,228$148,029

Median home value

$852,700$1,192,200

Median gross rent

$1,994$3,236

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
Under 5	5.1%	3.4%
5 to 17	12.4%	12.7%
18 to 24	11.9%	1.7%
25 to 34	19.0%	7.9%
35 to 44	14.1%	9.2%
45 to 54	10.2%	17.6%
55 to 64	11.2%	15.8%
65 to 74	9.5%	19.3%
75 and over	6.6%	12.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
White (non-Hispanic)	70.6%	97.1%
Black or African American	17.3%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	2.2%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.5%	0.3%
Hispanic or Latino	5.9%	0.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
No high school diploma	4.1%	0.2%
High school graduate	15.4%	4.6%
Some college or associate's	22.8%	25.5%
Bachelor's degree	35.5%	33.0%
Graduate or professional degree	22.2%	36.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
Drove alone	68.1%	62.5%
Carpooled	6.5%	7.6%
Public transit	0.9%	0.5%
Walked	4.1%	0.6%
Bicycle	1.5%	1.4%
Worked from home	17.6%	26.5%
Other means	1.2%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
1-unit, detached	47.9%	71.7%
1-unit, attached	6.8%	4.3%
2 to 4 units	8.9%	1.7%
5 to 19 units	19.3%	6.5%
20 or more units	16.1%	15.9%
Mobile home & other	1.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Charleston	Isle of Palms
Poverty rate	12.0%	1.8%
Average household size	2.20	2.18
Mean commute (minutes)	24	27
Median year structure built	1994	1985