Metro Life Score
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade F, 1st percentile of the national corpus.
- 32.8
- Life Score / 100
- F
- Grade (curved)
- #385
- of 387 metros
- 1%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #385 of 387 (32.8/100, grade F, 1st percentile). Carried by childcare at 70/100; held back most by environment at 8/100.
- 1st
- composite percentile
- #385
- of 387 peers
- 49th
- cost dimension percentile
- 21st
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · BOTTOM · BALANCED · signature composite
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#385 of 387, 32.8/100, 1st percentile). Stamps BOTTOM · BALANCED; Environment at 8/100 is the main drag; Childcare (70/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks MID/LOW. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC ranks #385 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #197 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 93.6 (rent-RPP 83.1). BLS median salary $59,331, 135,370 jobs (Retail Salespersons, Waiters and Waitresses, Fast Food and Counter Workers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,465/mo (studio $1,145).
FBI UCR (SC): 439 violent, 1988 property/100K. NCES: 13.8:1 ratio, 7.2% charter. DOL infant childcare $7,732/yr. EPA: 34 Superfund sites (SC).
Where Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
33 1st percentile higher than 1% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026
How the 32.8 is built
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are SC state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach With...
Ranking Context
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach outranks 1% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #382 | Charleston-North Charleston, SC | 33.0 | F |
| #383 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 33.0 | F |
| #384 | Kingston, NY | 33.3 | F |
| #385 | Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC | 32.8 | F |
| #386 | Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC | 30.0 | F |
| #387 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 26.2 | F |
Quality vs. Affordability
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC is bottom 1% lowest-quality nationally and also bottom 49% least affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.
SC Metro Scores
Read with Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach (BOTTOM · BALANCED · MID/LOW), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
ABS(composite) peer at 33.0 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · BALANCED · MID/LOW.
Charleston-North Charleston, SC
ABS(composite) peer at 33.0 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · BALANCED · MID/LOW.
Kingston, NY
ABS(composite) peer at 33.3 (Δ 0.5 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · BALANCED · MID/LOW.
Bozeman, MT
ABS(composite) peer at 33.5 (Δ 0.7 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · BALANCED · MID/LOW.
Columbia, SC (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 49/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp MID vs this metro's MID.
Roanoke, VA (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 49/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp MID vs this metro's MID.
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for BOTTOM · BALANCED · MID/LOW - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach's bottom-third Life Score
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach scores 32.8/100 overall, but Childcare (69.7) and Environment (8.0) sit 61.7 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Childcare is the strongest of Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach's seven dimensions (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Environment is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Florence is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Florence
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.