simplemaplab

South Carolina Counties

Complete list of all 46 counties in South Carolina with population, area, median income, and county seats — plus a free printable blank map.

Counties
46
Population
5,296,225
Area
30,062 sq mi
Capital
Columbia
Time Zone
Eastern (ET)
Labeled map of South Carolina counties

Labeled outline map of South Carolina counties. Download a printable version in SVG, PNG, or PDF.

All 46 South Carolina counties

County County Seat Population Area Median Income Cities
Greenville611,336785 mi²$78,43815
Charleston444,725916 mi²$92,76916
Richland407,605757 mi²$65,0599
Horry395,6781,134 mi²$67,20811
Spartanburg313,991808 mi²$68,05529
Lexington304,809699 mi²$82,09610
York294,233681 mi²$93,11010
Berkeley224,5741,099 mi²$84,02414
Anderson202,776715 mi²$65,94210
Beaufort197,099576 mi²$88,84912
Dorchester166,963573 mi²$79,9278
Aiken163,7521,071 mi²$70,17118
Florence144,668800 mi²$58,2889
Pickens113,238496 mi²$61,2308
Lancaster107,752549 mi²$80,6336

How many counties does South Carolina have?

South Carolina has 46 counties covering 30,062 square miles and roughly 5,296,225 residents. The state was admitted to the Union in 1788 as the 8th state, and the current county boundaries reflect more than a century of administrative subdivision.

The largest county by land area is Horry County at 1,134 square miles, home to about 395,678 residents. The most populous is Greenville County with approximately 611,336 residents — a density of about 779 people per square mile.

At the other end of the scale, Allendale County has only about 8,090 residents.

South Carolina’s capital is Columbia, while the largest city is Charleston — a common pattern in the United States, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.

Related resources

Download a printable outline of South Carolina’s county boundaries from our blank map of South Carolina page — available in SVG, PNG, and PDF.

Use the What County Am I In? tool to detect which South Carolina county a GPS location or address falls in, or the Address to County Lookup for batch input.

For demographic radius analysis, the Find ZIP Codes in Radius and Population Within Radius tools let you draw a circle around any South Carolina address and see every ZIP code and the total population inside.

Two SimpleMapLab studies cover South Carolina specifically: the 100-mile radius around Columbia measures how much of the state lives within 100 miles of its capitol, and the loneliest town in South Carolina ranks the state’s most isolated inhabited place. The county-counts blog post puts South Carolina’s 46 counties in national context.

Frequently asked questions

South Carolina has 46 counties. The state was admitted to the Union in 1788 as the 8th state. County boundaries have shifted over time as the population spread and new administrative units were carved from existing ones.
Horry County is the largest by land area at 1,134 square miles, with about 395,678 residents.
Greenville County is the most populous, with approximately 611,336 residents over 785 square miles.
Allendale County has the smallest population at about 8,090 residents.
Columbia is the state capital. The largest city is Charleston — a common pattern in the US, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.
Population, area, and demographic figures are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data (via the SimpleMaps dataset) and the US Census Gazetteer. County boundaries used to render the map are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line shapefiles. The data is public domain.
Data sources

Population and demographics are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data via the SimpleMaps dataset. Countiesboundaries are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. Land area is from the Census Gazetteer. State counts follow the US Census Bureau’s definition of counties and county-equivalents (50 states + DC = 3,143). All sources are public domain.

Neighboring states