Elevate Midlands Report Shows Residents Are Satisfied Overall With Area

College students, residents, and business leaders are “overall satisfied with the Midlands area,” but there is some disconnect in their views and room for improvement. Those are the major finding in the Elevate Midlands 2026 report.

Done annually since 2014 by the Midlands Regional Competitiveness Council, Elevate Midlands gauges how the Midlands area stacks against 11 other regions. The 2026 report was released to community and business leaders during a breakfast Tuesday, Sept. 29. 2026, at the Pastides Alumni Center in Columbia. The report, which has been printed in the past, is only available online this year at elevatemidlands.com.

Instead of primarily focusing on how the Midlands is doing against the 11 other regions, this year’s report took an inward turn. A major component of the 2026 report is the first-ever business leader, resident, and student sentiment study, conducted by Sparks Research in Clemson, that looks at how those three groups perceive the region and suggests corrective actions. The results of the  study were presented by David Williams, Sparks' vice president of customer relations.

Among the findings, the study revealed that:

·                 83 percent of students are overall satisfied with the Midlands area,

·                 85 percent of residents are overall satisfied, and

·                 97 percent of business leaders are overall satisfied.

But Williams pointed out that their study, which included an online panel, in-person interviews, and an email survey, found a perception gap in a couple of areas between business leaders and people who live and work in the Midlands.

While 91 percent of business leaders said the Midlands offers “quality job opportunities,” only 57 percent of students agreed. To bridge that gap, the report suggests that the region “consider expanding business outreach programs to increase attendance at Midlands job fairs,” as well as businesses offering more internships and utilizing existing programs to “help showcase the variety of industries and quality of life in the Midlands.”

An even larger perception gap exists between business leaders and residents on the issue of child care, with 91 percent of business leaders saying the “Midlands has reasonable child care availability,” while only 49 percent of residents agreed. The report suggests there is an opportunity for businesses to “consider offering a child care stipend and/or explore more realistic options for employees.”

Students

Most of the students interviewed attend the University of South Carolina. Of those interviewed, 34 percent said they plan to stay in the area after graduation, 37 percent plan to leave, and 29 percent are undecided. Of those who plan to leave, half, or 50 percent, said a job or career opportunity is their primary reason for leaving. The report urges business leaders to “engage students at the annual Columbia Hiring Fair to connect them to career opportunities before they decided where to go after graduation.”

Residents

Of the Midlands residents interviewed, 67 percent have lived in the area for more than 10 years, 28 percent live in urban areas and 72 percent in suburban or rural areas. Of those, 88 percent said their satisfaction with the area has “stayed the same or improved.”

Among residents, 58 percent rated the Midlands “better than other regions,” 73 percent said the Midlands is “growing in a sustainable way,” and 80 percent said they “feel safe in the Midlands.” Top attractions for residents are food and restaurants (24 percent), outdoor and park spaces  (22 percent), and the weather (21 percent).

Business Leaders

Two out of three of the business leaders in the survey have been living in the Midlands for more than 10 years, and 69 percent were young business leaders, ages 25-44.

Among the business leaders, 99 percent said their satisfaction with the Midlands has either stayed the same or improved, and 92 percent “consider the Midlands much better or better than other regions they have lived in  or considered.”

But they also pointed to three obstacles for business in the Midlands: “market awareness, access to capital and supply chain, and transportation and roads.”

Competitiveness

Elevate Midlands also takes a look at how the Midlands region – Richland, Lexington, Fairfield, Kershaw, Saluda, and Calhoun counties – ranks on six competitiveness indices against 11 other regions: Augusta, Charleston, Chattanooga, Greensboro, Greenville, Knoxville, Lexington-Fayette, Raleigh, Richmond, Tallahassee, and Winston-Salem.

The Midlands ranking for 2026 in each of  the six indices:

1.                      Human Capital/Talent – 10th

2.                      Entrepreneurial and Business Environment – 3rd

3.                      Innovative Capacity – 7th

4.                      High Impact Clusters – 11th

5.                      Livability – 9th

6.                      Employment – 7th

A key takeaway from this year’s report, prepared and presented by University of South Carolina research economist Joseph von Nessen, was “stability.”

“The dominant long-run theme that that goes through all the data is stability, economic stability in the Midlands,” Von Nessen said. “And it turns out this is a great, great advantage, a great competitive advantage, but it can also be a disadvantage at times,” he said. “It's an advantage because when we have more stability, that means we are more resilient in the face of economic downturns, but it also means that we tend not to grow as much as some of our competitive regions, including other areas of South Carolina, during economic booms, during periods of significant economic expansion.”

The report points out that “since 2022, announced economic development projects have brought nearly $3.4 billion in capital investment and more than 7,000 new jobs.”

But another key takeaways from the data, Von Nessen noted, is that relative to its  regional competitors, over the last decade, the Midlands has struggled to attract and retain talent but has strengthened its entrepreneurial environment.

The data, he said, suggest two long-term opportunities to improve the Midlands relative competitiveness. The region need to work to capture more of the population growth that is already migrating towards the Southeast and to retain more of the area’s college graduates.

As the Midlands Elevate breakfast wrapped up, Tracy Broom, an owner of marketing communications company Flock and Rally, which she said had worked with many of the businesses and organizations represented, issued a challenge: “In the next year, what can each of your organizations do to increase awareness of all of the good and the excellent stories that we have to tell about our region? And can we finally stop saying that we're two hours from the mountains, two hours from the shore?”