Isle of Palms vs Kiawah Island

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

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

Isle of Palms has the higher population (4,350 vs 2,196 in Kiawah Island). Kiawah Island has the higher median household income ($236,607 vs $148,029 in Isle of Palms). Kiawah Island has the higher median home value ($1,723,200 vs $1,192,200 in Isle of Palms).

Population, income & housing

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
Population	4,350	2,196
Median age	54.2 yrs	66.0 yrs
Median household income	$148,029	$236,607
Median home value	$1,192,200	$1,723,200
Median gross rent	$3,236	—
Housing units	4,485	3,896
Homeownership rate	90.7%	98.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	69.7%	86.5%
Unemployment rate	1.5%	3.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
Population	4,360 → 4,350 (-0.2%)	1,676 → 2,196 (+31.0%)
Median household income	$122,228 → $148,029 (+21.1%)	$193,750 → $236,607 (+22.1%)
Median home value	$852,700 → $1,192,200 (+39.8%)	$1,532,800 → $1,723,200 (+12.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,994 → $3,236 (+62.3%)	$2,056 → $2,750 (+33.8%)

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

Kiawah Island

Population

1,6762,196

Median household income

$193,750$236,607

Median home value

$1,532,800$1,723,200

Median gross rent

$2,056$2,750

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
Under 5	3.4%	0.0%
5 to 17	12.7%	1.4%
18 to 24	1.7%	1.0%
25 to 34	7.9%	0.8%
35 to 44	9.2%	1.5%
45 to 54	17.6%	3.1%
55 to 64	15.8%	36.7%
65 to 74	19.3%	36.7%
75 and over	12.4%	18.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
White (non-Hispanic)	97.1%	98.1%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.1%	1.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.3%	0.5%
Hispanic or Latino	0.4%	0.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
No high school diploma	0.2%	1.0%
High school graduate	4.6%	2.1%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	10.4%
Bachelor's degree	33.0%	36.2%
Graduate or professional degree	36.7%	50.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
Drove alone	62.5%	37.3%
Carpooled	7.6%	1.5%
Public transit	0.5%	3.4%
Walked	0.6%	0.9%
Bicycle	1.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	26.5%	48.9%
Other means	0.9%	8.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
1-unit, detached	71.7%	68.4%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	3.3%
2 to 4 units	1.7%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	6.5%	22.5%
20 or more units	15.9%	2.7%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Isle of Palms	Kiawah Island
Poverty rate	1.8%	2.7%
Average household size	2.18	1.93
Mean commute (minutes)	27	33
Median year structure built	1985	1989