Charleston vs Mount Pleasant

A side-by-side comparison of Charleston and Mount Pleasant: population, income, housing, and more.

Charleston and Mount Pleasant 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 92,662 in Mount Pleasant). Mount Pleasant has the higher median household income ($121,364 vs $90,038 in Charleston). Mount Pleasant has the higher median home value ($667,100 vs $469,100 in Charleston).

Population, income & housing

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
Population	152,014	92,662
Median age	36.1 yrs	42.8 yrs
Median household income	$90,038	$121,364
Median home value	$469,100	$667,100
Median gross rent	$1,632	$2,026
Housing units	75,826	43,608
Homeownership rate	55.6%	73.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.7%	66.2%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
Population	135,257 → 152,014 (+12.4%)	86,982 → 92,662 (+6.5%)
Median household income	$68,438 → $90,038 (+31.6%)	$103,232 → $121,364 (+17.6%)
Median home value	$330,600 → $469,100 (+41.9%)	$461,000 → $667,100 (+44.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,257 → $1,632 (+29.8%)	$1,629 → $2,026 (+24.4%)

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

Mount Pleasant

Population

86,98292,662

Median household income

$103,232$121,364

Median home value

$461,000$667,100

Median gross rent

$1,629$2,026

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
Under 5	5.1%	6.0%
5 to 17	12.4%	16.6%
18 to 24	11.9%	4.1%
25 to 34	19.0%	12.3%
35 to 44	14.1%	14.8%
45 to 54	10.2%	15.2%
55 to 64	11.2%	13.0%
65 to 74	9.5%	11.0%
75 and over	6.6%	7.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
White (non-Hispanic)	70.6%	90.3%
Black or African American	17.3%	2.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	2.2%	1.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.5%	2.1%
Hispanic or Latino	5.9%	2.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
No high school diploma	4.1%	2.3%
High school graduate	15.4%	8.7%
Some college or associate's	22.8%	22.8%
Bachelor's degree	35.5%	40.7%
Graduate or professional degree	22.2%	25.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
Drove alone	68.1%	69.3%
Carpooled	6.5%	5.7%
Public transit	0.9%	0.3%
Walked	4.1%	0.3%
Bicycle	1.5%	0.4%
Worked from home	17.6%	23.2%
Other means	1.2%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
1-unit, detached	47.9%	64.5%
1-unit, attached	6.8%	11.3%
2 to 4 units	8.9%	3.2%
5 to 19 units	19.3%	8.5%
20 or more units	16.1%	11.7%
Mobile home & other	1.0%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Charleston	Mount Pleasant
Poverty rate	12.0%	5.8%
Average household size	2.20	2.35
Mean commute (minutes)	24	25
Median year structure built	1994	2000