North Charleston, SC vs Charleston, SC
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Charleston spends 45.7% more per capita than North Charleston ($10,876/person difference). North Charleston, SC has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (A, 80/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $231 | $1,723 |
| Income Tax | $0 | $2,502 |
| Intergovernmental | $23,753 | $646 |
| Other | $632 | $4,635 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $1,323 | $1,726 |
| Highways & Roads | $867 | $1,309 |
| Public Welfare | $0 | $902 |
| Health | $0 | $2,099 |
| Hospitals | $194 | $0 |
| Parks & Recreation | $987 | $3,903 |
| Housing | $3,880 | $5,779 |
| Sewerage | $274 | $191 |
| Utilities | $650 | $2,955 |
| General Admin | $0 | $625 |
| Other | $4,742 | $4,305 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.