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Cost of living, rent, and safety data — Population 838,433 • 0 community reports
Data last updated
City Score
Best for: Cost of Living · Watch out for: Safety
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Common questions about living in Columbia, SC
"Dangerous" is too broad a label for any city, but Columbia does sit above national averages on crime. The violent crime index is 121 and property crime hits 113 — both past the 100-point U.S. baseline. Plenty of residents live comfortably and safely, but they've usually chosen their neighborhoods carefully. If you're considering a move, visit first, drive around at night, and look up crime stats block by block. Data: FBI Uniform Crime Report.
Most households manage fine. Median rent in Columbia is $1,204/month, and the typical household pulls in $55,529/year — a 26.0% rent-to-income ratio. That's under the 30% threshold where housing costs start to pinch, though not by a huge margin. If you're a single earner or have significant debt payments, run your own numbers carefully. For dual-income households, the math works out comfortably. Census ACS 2023.
The average worker in Columbia spends about 16 minutes getting to the office. Driving solo is the default (63.0%), with 11.6% working remotely and 1.0% on public transit. It's a fairly typical commute — not a selling point, not a dealbreaker.
Everything on this page is built from public government sources: rent and income figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2023); commute and transportation data from Census ACS tables B08303 and B08006; crime rates from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. We refresh each dataset monthly through an automated pipeline and cross-check for anomalies. No surveys, no user-submitted guesses — just official federal data presented in a way that's actually useful for people researching a move.
Disclaimer: Data reflects city-wide averages from public sources. Individual neighborhoods, schools, and conditions may differ. Always verify with local agencies before making major decisions.
These calculators pair well with the Columbia, SC dashboard.
City scores blend federal baseline data with community reports from residents. The more reports a city has, the more the score reflects current conditions rather than historical averages.
The overall score is a weighted average of four categories:
Confidence tells you how reliable a score is based on report volume and recency:
CityScore = (BaselineWeight × BaselineScore) + (CrowdWeight × CommunityScore)
CrowdWeight grows from 0% to 50% as reports accumulate. Verified reports count double.