Effingham, South Carolina.
. Florence, SC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$870 (+120%) since Jan 2020.
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- South Carolina$1,597
- United States$1,922
Living in Effingham, Florence County, South Carolina
The Census does not count Effingham on its own, so the figures here are Florence County's. Half the county's households earn more than $58,305 a year and half less; 19% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 64% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Florence County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Florence County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Effingham is a community in Florence County, in the Pee Dee area of South Carolina. Winters are mild, with January the coldest month, and summers are hot, with July the warmest. The region gets a good deal of rain and melted snow over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, or in shops and restaurants. Unemployment has eased over the past year, and the county has recently added jobs. Most people's commutes are short, few people work from home, and a minority of adults hold a four-year degree.
Things to do. The Florence Air & Missile Museum and the War Between the States Museum are both a short drive away. Pepsi Cola Lake, also a short drive away, is a good place to spend a quiet afternoon by the water.
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- 52,856households
- 39.4median age
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What people in Florence County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Florence County had 69,704 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 57° and lows near 36°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 72°. About 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Florence Regional Airport weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Florence County
- Mcleod Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,771FTE
- Florence 01 SchoolsSchool district2,539FTE
- Mcleod Physician AssociatesManaging offices of physicians and surgeons1,566
- HondaAll-terrain vehicles, wheeled or tracked, manufacturing1,244
- QVC, Inc. (Florence)General warehousing and storage1,097
- Ruiz Food ProductsMexican foods, frozen, manufacturing976
- Musc Health Florence Medical CenterGeneral hospital904FTE
- Foodservice Florence635
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 110 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 26,556 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- HurricanesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Florence County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Florence County and the Florence, SC metro.
Effingham home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Effingham12
Zip codes with a Effingham address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Effingham — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.