COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina city has just been ranked one of the fastest-growing "boomtowns" in America by the financial planning website, SmartAsset.com.
And it's not the only Palmetto State city to make the list.
According to the SmartAsset.com study, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina was ranked as the fifth most booming city in the U.S. on a list that encompassed 50. While the change is the number of residents played a role, that was actually more to the overall ranking.
The study looked at population change, unemployment rate, change in the unemployment rate, GDP growth rate, business growth, housing growth, and change in household income.
Mount Pleasant was said to have the fastest-growing household incomes of any city in the top ten with the median growing by more than 47%. That's 25 percentage points more than the national average and the 16th best across all 500 cities the study looked at. The overall population also saw a significant increase of about 13.53% from 2015 to 2020, SmartAsset reports. That ranks it as the 19th fastest growing city in the study.
However, it turns out that Mount Pleasant isn't the only South Carolina location to make the list either. Not far away, neither on the list nor by physical distance, is North Charleston, which came in 11th overall. The city had a 9.06% increase in five-year population change, a 3.3% increase in average yearly GDP growth, a 16.5% change in the number of establishments over five years, and a 16.34%.
And the very next spot, 12th, leaves the coastal region for the Upstate with Rock Hill, South Carolina. The study found a 7.12% population change over five years, average yearly GDP growth of 4.5%, a five-year change in the number of establishments of 16.36%, and a 14.99% housing growth rate over five years.
And finally, rounding out South Carolina's mentions on the "boomtown" list is another Lowcountry city common on national lists, Charleston, which shared a two-way tie for the 25th city on the list with Round Rock, Texas.
Charleston was said to have a 5.37% population increase over five years with a 3.7% average yearly increase in GDP, a 23.44% change in the number of establishments over five years, and a 23.15% housing growth rate over five years.
Each South Carolina city was also in the 3.8 to 3.9 percent range for unemployment as of August 2021, the report suggests.
The top spot for the entire list went to a city in a state not too far away. Murfreesboro, Tennessee took the top spot, adding that it places in the top 20% of cities for six of the seven metrics the study considered. It had a five-year population change of 19.62% an average yearly GDP growth of 3.71%, a five-year change in the number of establishments of 15.95%, and a 21.15% housing growth rate over five years. It also showed an unemployment rate of 3.4%.
