Columbia Authority

Also known as: Columbia Metro Authority

Columbia is a middle-income small city of 139,643.

Columbia is, among other things, a city that contains a major research university, which goes some way toward explaining why its median age is 28.6 years, a figure that would seem implausible in most American cities of comparable size but makes immediate sense once you account for roughly 30,000 enrolled students. The city sits in Lexington County and, according to Census ACS 5-Year 2024 data, holds a total population of 139,643.

Demographics and Age Profile

The population skews decisively young. According to Census ACS 5-Year 2024, residents between 18 and 34 number 60,054, the single largest age cohort in the city. Children under 18 account for 23,782 residents, or about 17 percent of the total. The median age of 28.6 places Columbia well below the national median, a characteristic the Census ACS data classifies as a "young community."

Racially, the city is diverse. Census ACS 5-Year 2023 data counts 68,814 white residents, 54,566 Black residents, 3,686 Asian residents, and 7,842 residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino. Total households number 51,784, of which 24,696 are family households.

Housing and Affordability

Housing affordability in Columbia sits at what the derived Census income and housing data characterizes as "moderate" for ownership and "affordable" for renters. The home-price-to-income ratio stands at 4.8, meaning the median home price is roughly 4.8 times the median household income, a ratio that is neither alarming by coastal-city standards nor especially comfortable by historical norms. Renters spend approximately 25.0 percent of income on rent, a figure that falls below the conventional 30-percent threshold that housing researchers typically use to define cost burden. The median household income, per Census ACS data, is $55,653.

Education

The University of South Carolina-Columbia is the city's most prominent educational institution. According to the College Scorecard, it enrolls 29,820 students, carries an in-state tuition of $12,688 and an out-of-state tuition of $35,972, reports an average SAT score of 1,297, and admits approximately 60 percent of applicants. Its completion rate, per the same source, is 0.77. The university's presence is the dominant fact about Columbia's demographic character, and most of the city's other statistics — median age, household composition, rental affordability — are downstream of it in some way.

Beyond the university, NCES IPEDS 2022 data identifies 11 degree-granting institutions in the city. Childcare infrastructure is substantial: the state's facility registry lists 71 licensed childcare centers operating within Columbia, ranging from center-based programs to other facility types.

Broadband Connectivity

According to FCC Broadband Data Collection figures as of June 2025, Columbia achieves full coverage at the 25/3 Mbps, 100/20 Mbps, and 250/25 Mbps service tiers — meaning 100 percent of the city's 68,015 housing units have access to service at those speeds. Coverage at the 1,000/100 Mbps tier reaches approximately 39.2 percent of units, indicating that gigabit-class service, while present, is not yet universal.

Air Quality and Climate

The EPA's AQI Annual Summary for 2023 records 96 good air quality days and 53 moderate days for the Columbia area, with zero days classified as unhealthy for sensitive groups or unhealthy generally. The maximum AQI recorded was 77; the median was 41. These figures suggest air quality that is, by the standards of American cities, relatively benign.

The climate data, drawn from the NOAA ACIS station at Columbia University of SC, located 4.3 miles from the city center, shows an average annual temperature of 67.3 degrees Fahrenheit and annual precipitation of 52.2 inches. That precipitation figure is notably higher than the national average, a consequence of Columbia's position in the South Carolina Midlands, where warm, moist air from the Gulf tends to produce generous rainfall across most seasons.

Civic and Community Organizations

The IRS Exempt Organizations BMF identifies the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce as the city's primary business civic organization. The same federal dataset counts 289 churches operating within the city, 16 arts organizations, 19 civic service organizations, and 5 animal shelters. Among the arts organizations are the South Carolina Ballet, Ann Brodie's Carolina Ballet, and Symphony League, suggesting a performing-arts infrastructure that is, for a city of this size, reasonably well developed.

Attractions within a few miles of the city center include a splash pad (2.3 miles), the Columbia Fire Department Museum (3.0 miles), and Hampton-Preston Mansion, among 24 nearby points of interest identified in the attractions data.

Banking

FDIC branch data shows multiple banking institutions operating in Columbia, including Arthur State Bank's Gervais Branch at 1700 Gervais St and Truist Bank's Five Points Branch at 2101 Blossom Street, among others. Five Points is a well-known commercial and residential neighborhood near the university, and its inclusion in the branch data is consistent with the concentration of retail and service activity in that corridor.

Zoning and Municipal Authority

Columbia's land-use framework operates under the authority granted by Title 6, Chapter 29 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina, S.C. Code 1976, § 6-29-310 et seq. The municipal zoning code, available through the Columbia Municipal Code on Municode (https://library.municode.com/sc/columbia-city-south-carolina), establishes the regulatory basis for land use, building configuration, yard requirements, and open space. The stated purposes of the zoning ordinance, as reflected in comparable South Carolina municipal codes drawing on the same state enabling statute, include lessening traffic congestion, preserving neighborhood integrity, promoting health and general welfare, and facilitating adequate provisions for transportation, water, sewer, schools, and parks — a list that reads, on close inspection, like a compressed history of what American cities decided they needed to regulate after discovering what happened when they did not.

Amendments to zoning regulations, district boundaries, or property classifications may be made by city council ordinance whenever public necessity, convenience, general welfare, or sound zoning practice requires, a standard that gives the council considerable latitude while still requiring a formal legislative act.

Further Reading

• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates — https://data.census.gov
• Federal Communications Commission, Broadband Data Collection — referenced via FCC BDC Jun 2025 filing
• National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data — https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
• City of Columbia, Municipal Code — https://library.municode.com/sc/columbia-city-south-carolina