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Sullivan's Island, SC

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





Overview


Sullivan's 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 1,910 people and just one neighborhood, Sullivan's Island is the 143rd largest community in South Carolina.

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

Occupations and Workforce

Sullivan's Island is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 97.07% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Sullivan's Island is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Sullivan's Island who work in management occupations (19.85%), legal occupations (11.14%), and computer science and math (10.72%).

Also of interest is that Sullivan's 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: 10.25% 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

In addition, Sullivan's Island is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness'. But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.

Because of many things, Sullivan's Island is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Sullivan's Island really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Sullivan's Island perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

One of the nice things about Sullivan's 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.

Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Sullivan's Island. 85.47% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.

The per capita income in Sullivan's Island in 2022 was $107,987, which is wealthy relative to South Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $431,948 for a family of four.

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

The most common language spoken in Sullivan's Island is English. Other important languages spoken here include German/Yiddish and Spanish.

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 Sullivan's 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.

In addition, one way that the neighborhood really stands out, is that it has more large 4, 5, or additional bedroom homes and real estate than 96.9% of the neighborhoods in America. When you walk or drive around this neighborhood, you'll instantly notice the size of the homes here which definitely makes a strong visual statement.

People

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 99.9% 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, urban sophisticates and families with school-aged children.

In addition, the rate of college educated adults in the neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 85.5% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 34.3% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

Also, 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 3.5% 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.

Modes of Transportation

If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 3.2% of residents in the neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 96.2% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.

Occupations

The neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 95.6% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 70.2% of the employed people here make a living as an executive, a manager, or other professional. With such a high concentration, this truly shapes the character of this neighborhood, and to a large degree defines what this neighborhood is about.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Welsh and English ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Welsh ancestry and 26.3% 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 Sullivan's 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 96.5% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 5.6% 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 62.7% 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, 70.2% 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 20.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (6.3%), and 2.9% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.1% of households.

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 Sullivan's Island, SC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (26.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (14.5%), and residents who report German roots (9.5%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (5.2%), along with some Welsh ancestry residents (4.9%), 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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (44.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (80.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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Economics & Demographics include:
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Race & Ethnic Diversity
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Crime includes:
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Schools include:
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