Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Charleston's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Charleston?
Your $100,000 in Charleston has the same purchasing power as $127,081 in the average US city. You'd need $27,081 less here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Charleston's cost index of 79, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Charleston? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly your money goes a lot further here and you don't actually need a car, plus 4 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Charleston's composite cost-of-living index is 79 — roughly 21% under the US baseline. Housing is doing most of the heavy lifting; groceries, utilities, and services are also cheaper than the national norm, just by smaller margins. Median rent in town runs about $870/mo against a typical household income of $58,902, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
With a Walk Score of 81/100, Charleston is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear.
Bike Score of 73/100 in Charleston. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Average AQI in Charleston comes in around 39, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Average commute time in Charleston runs around 18 minutes one-way — short enough that it doesn't restructure your day. Compared to the 45-plus-minute commutes that are normal in major metros, the difference adds up to a real lifestyle gap.
Charleston has a college-educated share of about 43% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from Charleston's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Snow is just part of the winter in Charleston. Average temperatures around 25°F mean the ground stays covered from December well into March, and a snowblower is less optional than aspirational.
Properly cold. Charleston's winter sits around 25°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Charleston's summer averages around 84°F, the kind of heat where you remember to leave the house before noon for outdoor things and accept that the back of your shirt will be wet by lunchtime.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 7. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 7 or colder should survive a typical winter in Charleston. (The estimate is derived from our winter-temperature data; the official USDA map uses station-level annual minimums and may differ by half a zone.)
Roughly 604 feet (184 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Charleston's ~5,151 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
Charleston is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 79 versus the 100 national baseline — about 21% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Charleston scores 81/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. It's the kind of city where you don't think of going to the grocery store as "going" to the grocery store.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $55,083 to live in Charleston the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Charleston runs about $870/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.