Best PlacesDillon County, SC Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Dillon County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Dillon County ranks 3,010th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Crime pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low property taxes.

#3,010
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Dillon County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Dillon County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Dillon County's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Dillon County with other counties.

Where Dillon County ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 88% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 86% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$552 a month, better than 83% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 66% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than 63% of counties

Where Dillon County ranks low

  • Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Household income$49,609 median, better than only 8% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Dillon County

A household needs to earn about $29,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dillon County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $49,609, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$29,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$684
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $118,013 home
Median rent
$718
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$602
Property tax$43
Homeowners insurance$39

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Dillon County's effective rate of 0.44%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Dillon County

Dillon County's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Dillon County.


Who works in Dillon County, and how

Work in Dillon County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
5%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.5%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.8%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing18%
Health care & social15%
Retail trade14%
Education9%
Transportation & warehousing7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 93%
  • Work from home 5%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Dillon County

Dillon County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Dillon County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
1,973
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 697.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 98% of counties
Coffee shops
167
about 59.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 97% of counties

Is Dillon County growing, and who is moving in?

Dillon County has lost about 12% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Marion County, SC.

Population growth
-12%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
27,577
down from 31,296
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Marion County, SC360 / yr
Florence, SC159 / yr
Fayetteville, NC134 / yr
Atlanta, GA99 / yr
Charleston, SC97 / yr

Where people leaving Dillon County go

Columbia, SC152 / yr
Marlboro County, SC96 / yr
Florence, SC83 / yr
Georgetown County, SC79 / yr
San Antonio, TX59 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Dillon County, month by month

Dillon County sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January56°45°37°
April75°63°52°
July90°79°71°
October76°64°55°

Flying in and out of Dillon County

The nearest airport, Florence Regional, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 106 miles away.

Nearest airport
FLO
Florence Regional, about 25 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
327th-busiest in the US, 4 nonstop destinations
Average drive
36 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Dillon County

Schools across Dillon County average a C−, better than 30% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dillon County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Dillon County measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Dillon County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Dillon County suits

Families

Schools land around the 30th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

5% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Dillon County

Is Dillon County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dillon County ranks 3,010th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare, and lowest on crime and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Dillon County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $118,013. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $49,609 median income, cost of living beats 9% of counties.

Is Dillon County safe?

Dillon County is safer than 4% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $950 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Dillon County?

July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 56 with lows near 37. That works out to about 88 pleasant days a year, more than 50% of counties.

Is Dillon County good for families?

Schools beat 30% of counties, crime safety beats 4%, and childcare runs $552 a month.


Compare Dillon County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dillon County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dillon County represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Dillon County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Dillon County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Dillon County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Dillon County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Dillon County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Dillon County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.