Mount Pleasant named 2nd fastest-growing U.S. city

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Mount Pleasant is the fastest-growing small city in the United States and the second fastest-growing city overall, according to an analysis by personal finance website WalletHub.

Lehigh Acres, Fla., ranked No. 1 on the list, and Bend, Ore., Enterprise, Nev., and Frisco, Texas, rounded out the top five.

The analysis compared 515 cities of varying population sizes based on “sociodemographics” and the local economy, using 17 metrics that include population growth, job growth, income growth, poverty rate decrease and building permit activity growth, among others.

Mount Pleasant ranked No. 1 for median household income growth, at 7.58%, No. 1 for job growth, at 4.06%, No. 1 for growth in share of college-educated population, at 2%, and No. 9 for population growth, at 3.69%.

According to the Census Bureau, Mount Pleasant’s population is approximately 80,661. The median household income in the town is $90,454, with a median income of $77,673 for male workers and a median of $51,712 for female workers. Mount Pleasant’s poverty rate is 5.4%, and it has an employment rate of 66.5%.

The town did not rank as highly on unemployment rate decrease, ranking 395th with a drop of 0.47%. Building permit activity growth ranked 399th, with 1.51% growth.

Last year, Mount Pleasant Town Council approved a limit on residential building permits, restricting the allowance to 600 new permits each year for the next five years.

Elsewhere in the Palmetto State, Charleston was ranked at No. 34, North Charleston at No. 40, Rock Hill at No. 180 and Columbia at No. 405.