Isle of Palms vs Sullivan's Island

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

Isle of Palms and Sullivan's 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 2,127 in Sullivan's Island). Sullivan's Island has the higher median household income ($179,614 vs $148,029 in Isle of Palms). Sullivan's Island has the higher median home value ($2,000,001 vs $1,192,200 in Isle of Palms).

Population, income & housing

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
Population	4,350	2,127
Median age	54.2 yrs	52.9 yrs
Median household income	$148,029	$179,614
Median home value	$1,192,200	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$3,236	$2,402
Housing units	4,485	1,078
Homeownership rate	90.7%	84.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	69.7%	87.2%
Unemployment rate	1.5%	1.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
Population	4,360 → 4,350 (-0.2%)	2,203 → 2,127 (-3.4%)
Median household income	$122,228 → $148,029 (+21.1%)	$136,528 → $179,614 (+31.6%)
Median home value	$852,700 → $1,192,200 (+39.8%)	$1,773,100 → $2,000,001 (+12.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,994 → $3,236 (+62.3%)	$2,167 → $2,402 (+10.8%)

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

Sullivan's Island

Population

2,2032,127

Median household income

$136,528$179,614

Median home value

$1,773,100$2,000,001

Median gross rent

$2,167$2,402

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
Under 5	3.4%	2.0%
5 to 17	12.7%	15.5%
18 to 24	1.7%	4.2%
25 to 34	7.9%	5.1%
35 to 44	9.2%	11.7%
45 to 54	17.6%	15.1%
55 to 64	15.8%	19.7%
65 to 74	19.3%	19.6%
75 and over	12.4%	7.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
White (non-Hispanic)	97.1%	97.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.1%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.3%	0.6%
Hispanic or Latino	0.4%	2.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
No high school diploma	0.2%	0.1%
High school graduate	4.6%	2.0%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	10.7%
Bachelor's degree	33.0%	41.2%
Graduate or professional degree	36.7%	45.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
Drove alone	62.5%	81.1%
Carpooled	7.6%	1.4%
Public transit	0.5%	0.0%
Walked	0.6%	2.4%
Bicycle	1.4%	3.1%
Worked from home	26.5%	11.1%
Other means	0.9%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
1-unit, detached	71.7%	88.9%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	0.2%
2 to 4 units	1.7%	3.6%
5 to 19 units	6.5%	3.4%
20 or more units	15.9%	3.1%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Isle of Palms	Sullivan's Island
Poverty rate	1.8%	8.3%
Average household size	2.18	2.60
Mean commute (minutes)	27	17
Median year structure built	1985	1984