North Charleston, SC vs Summerville, SC
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
North Charleston spends 29.9% more per capita than Summerville ($2,971/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 | $92 |
| Intergovernmental | $23,753 | $4,202 |
| Charges & Fees | $0 | $2,363 |
| Other | $632 | $971 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $1,323 | $152 |
| Highways & Roads | $867 | $527 |
| Hospitals | $194 | $0 |
| Parks & Recreation | $987 | $631 |
| Housing | $3,880 | $2,315 |
| Sewerage | $274 | $153 |
| Utilities | $650 | $2,819 |
| Other | $4,742 | $3,350 |
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.