South Carolina

Statistical areas

The following tables show the major metropolitan and combined statistical areas of South Carolina. Some statistical areas of South Carolina overlap with neighboring states of North Carolina and Georgia.

{| class="wikitable"

! Rank

! Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

! Population (2023)

! Counties

| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

| align="center" |2,805,115

| Chester, Lancaster, York

| Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC

| align="center" |975,480

| Anderson, Greenville, Laurens, Pickens

| Columbia, SC

| align="center" |858,302

| Calhoun, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lexington, Richland, Saluda

| Charleston-North Charleston, SC

| align="center" |849,417

| Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester

|Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC

| align="center" |629,429

|Aiken, Edgefield

| Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC

| align="center" |397,478

| Horry

| Spartanburg, SC

| align="center" |383,327

| Spartanburg

| Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC

| align="center" |232,523

| Beaufort, Jasper

| Florence, SC

| align="center" |199,630

| Darlington, Florence

|10

| Sumter, SC

| align="center" |104,165

| Sumter

{| class="wikitable"

! Rank

! Combined statistical area (CSA)

| align-fn = center

| footnote = Source: 1910–2020

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible"; text-align:right; font-size:80%;"

|+ style="font-size:90%" |Ethnic composition as of the 2020 census

! Race and ethnicity

! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Alone

! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Total

| White (non-Hispanic)

|align=right|

| African American (non-Hispanic)

|align=right|

| Hispanic or Latino

|align=right|

| Asian

|align=right|

| Native American

|align=right|

| Pacific Islander

|align=right|

| Other

|align=right|

thumb|230px|Ethnic origins in South Carolina[[File:Ethnic_origin_in_South_Carolina_(2020).jpg|thumb|Largest alone or in any combination ethnic origin by county in South Carolina, per the 2020 census]]

[[File:South Carolina Counties by race (2020 census).svg|thumb|Map of South Carolina counties by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census

Non-Hispanic White

Black or African American

|204x204px]]

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible" style="font-size: 90%;"

|+ South Carolina racial breakdown of population

! Racial composition !! 1990!! 2000!! 2010!! 2020

!2022

| White || 69.0% || 67.2% || 66.2% || 63.4%

|69.0%

| Black || 29.8% || 29.5% || 27.9% || 25.0%

|26.0%

| Asian || 0.6% || 0.9% || 1.3% || 1.8%

|2.0%

| Native American || 0.2% || 0.3% || 0.4% || 0.5%

|0.6%

| Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander || – || – || 0.1% || 0.1%

|0.1%

| Two or more races || – || 1.0% || 1.7% || 5.8%

| 2.3%

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+South Carolina – Racial and ethnic composition

!Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)

!Pop 2000

!Pop 2010

!% 2000

!% 2010

|White alone (NH)

|2,652,291

|2,962,740

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3,178,552

|66.11%

|64.05%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |62.10%

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|1,178,486

|1,279,998

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1,269,031

|29.37%

|27.67%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |24.79%

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|12,765

|16,614

|style='background: #ffffe6; |16,591

|0.32%

|0.36%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.32%

|Asian alone (NH)

|35,568

|58,307

|style='background: #ffffe6; |89,394

|0.89%

|1.26%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.75%

|Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|1,270

|2,113

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3,085

|0.03%

|0.05%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.06%

|Other race alone (NH)

|3,266

|5,714

|style='background: #ffffe6; |19,354

|0.08%

|0.12%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.38%

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|33,290

|64,196

|style='background: #ffffe6; |189,580

|0.83%

|1.39%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3.70%

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|95,076

|235,682

|style='background: #ffffe6; |352,838

|2.37%

|5.10%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |6.89%

|Total

|4,012,012

|4,625,364

|style='background: #ffffe6; |5,118,425

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

thumb|left|Population density of South Carolina

The 2020 census determined the state had a population of 5,118,425, a 10.7% percentage increase since the 2010 census.

According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 3,608 homeless people in South Carolina.

At the 2020 census, the racial make up of the state was 63.4% White (62.1% non-Hispanic white), 25.0% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.8% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 3.5% from some other race, and 5.8% from two or more races. 6.9% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin of any race. South Carolina has banned sanctuary cities.

The top countries of origin for South Carolina's immigrants were Mexico, India, Germany, Honduras and the Philippines, .

Enslaved Africans were brought to the state during the slave trade. There is also a Gullah community in South Carolina. Additionally, there is one federally recognized tribe in South Carolina, the Catawba Indian Nation, and 24,303 identified as being Native American alone, and 83,808 did in combination with one or more other races in 2020.

Languages

Many indigenous languages such as Muskogean languages have disappeared. Cherokee and Catawba lasted the longest. European settlers in South Carolina spoke Spanish, French, German, Irish, English, Welsh, and Scots. Gullah is spoken in the state by African Americans. Newer residents in South Carolina speak Tagalog, Greek, Indic, Italian, Chinese, Korean or Japanese.

Religion

According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), in 2010, the largest religion is Christianity, of which the largest denominations were the Southern Baptist Convention with 913,763 adherents, the United Methodist Church with 274,111 adherents, and the Roman Catholic Church with 181,743 adherents. Fourth-largest is the African Methodist Episcopal Church with 564 congregations and 121,000 members and fifth-largest is the Presbyterian Church (USA) with 320 congregations and almost 100,000 members. As of 2010, South Carolina was the American state with the highest per capita proportion of citizens who follow the Baháʼí Faith, with 17,559 adherents, making Baháʼí the second-largest religion in the state at the time.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020, Christianity remained the largest religion at approximately 74% of the population. Among the Christian population, evangelical Protestantism remained the majority; the irreligious community was 18% of the total population. Per ARDA's 2020 religion census, Southern Baptists remained the majority with 816,405 adherents, and Roman Catholics had 407,840 adherents, followed by United Methodists at 242,467. As other Baptist denominations had from 10 to 40,000+ members individually, nondenominational/interdenominational Protestants increased to 454,063 adherents.

Outside of Christianity, ARDA's 2020 study reported 6,677 Muslims in the state, and 830 Orthodox Jews; Reform Judaism consisted of 3,430 adherents. Altogether, Hinduism had 8,383 adherents. The state debt in 2012 was calculated by one source to be $22.9bn, or $7,800 per taxpayer.

Industrial outputs include textile goods, chemical products, paper products, machinery, automobiles, automotive products and tourism. Major agricultural outputs of the state are tobacco, poultry, cotton, cattle, dairy products, soybeans, hay, rice, and swine. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 2012, South Carolina had 1,852,700 nonfarm jobs of which 12% are in manufacturing, 11.5% are in leisure and hospitality, 19% are in trade, transportation, and utilities, and 11.8% are in education and health services. The service sector accounts for 83.7% of the South Carolina economy. In 2025, 99.4% of South Carolina's businesses were small businesses and employed 42.9% of the state's work force.

Many large corporations have facilities in South Carolina. Boeing opened an aircraft manufacturing facility at Charleston International Airport in 2011, which serves as the final assembly site for the 787 Dreamliner. South Carolina is a right-to-work state and many businesses use staffing agencies to temporarily fill positions. Domtar, in Rock Hill, used to be the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in South Carolina, but it was later moved into the Fortune 1000 list. The three Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in the state are Domtar, Sonoco Products, and ScanSource. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) brought 1.06 billion dollars to the state economy in 2010. Since 1994, BMW has had a production facility in Spartanburg County near Greer and since 1996 the Zapp Group operates in Summerville near Charleston.

Transportation and infrastructure

thumb|[[Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge from Charleston Harbor]]

The state has the fourth largest state-maintained highway system in the country, consisting of 11 Interstates, numbered highways, state highways, and secondary roads, totalling approximately .

On secondary roads, South Carolina uses a numbering system to keep track of all non-interstate and primary highways that the South Carolina Department of Transportation maintains. Secondary roads are numbered by the number of the county followed by a unique number for the particular road.

Major highways

Primary Interstates

Auxiliary (three-digit) Interstates

Rail

CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern are the only Class I railroad companies in South Carolina, as other freight companies in the state are short lines.

Amtrak operates four passenger routes in South Carolina: the Crescent, the Palmetto, the Silver Meteor, and the Silver Star. The Crescent route serves the Upstate cities, the Silver Star serves the Midlands cities, and the Palmetto and Silver Meteor routes serve the lowcountry cities.

{| class="wikitable"

!Station

!Connections

|Camden

|North Charleston

|Columbia

|Clemson

|Denmark

|Dillon

|Florence

|Greenville

|Kingstree

|Spartanburg

|Yemassee

Major and regional airports

There are seven significant airports in South Carolina, all of which act as regional airport hubs. The busiest by passenger volume is Charleston International Airport. Just across the border in North Carolina is Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, the 30th busiest airport in the world, in terms of passengers.

Columbia Metropolitan Airport – Columbia
Charleston International Airport – North Charleston
Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport – Greenville/Spartanburg
Florence Regional Airport – Florence
Myrtle Beach International Airport – Myrtle Beach
Hilton Head Airport – Hilton Head Island/Beaufort
Rock Hill/York County Airport – Rock Hill

Education

South Carolina has 1,167 K–12 schools in 79 school districts with an enrollment of 751,660 as of 2022. In 2022, South Carolina spent $11,747 per public school student.

In 2023, the average SAT score in South Carolina was 1028, in line with the national average.

South Carolina does not currently implement Common Core in schools, having repealed the standards in 2014.

In 2014, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the state had failed to provide a "minimally adequate" education to children in all parts of the state as required by the state's constitution.

South Carolina is the only state which owns and operates a statewide school bus system. As of December 2016, the state maintains a 5,582-bus fleet with the average vehicle in service being fifteen years old (the national average is six) having logged 236,000 miles. Half of the state's school buses are more than 15 years old and some are reportedly up to 30 years old. In 2017 in the budget proposal, Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman requested the state lease to purchase 1,000 buses to replace the most decrepit vehicles. An additional 175 buses could be purchased immediately through the State Treasurer's master lease program. On January 5, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded South Carolina more than $1.1 million to replace 57 school buses with new cleaner models through its Diesel Emissions Reduction Act program.

Higher education

South Carolina has diverse institutions from large state-funded research universities to small colleges that cultivate a liberal arts, religious, or military tradition. (List below sorted by year established.)

The College of Charleston, founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, is the oldest institution of higher learning in South Carolina, the 13th oldest in the United States, and the first municipal college in the country. The college is in company with the Colonial Colleges as one of the original and foundational institutions of higher education in the United States. Its founders include three signers of the United States Declaration of Independence and three signers of the United States Constitution. The college's historic campus, listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places, forms an integral part of Charleston's colonial-era urban center. The Graduate School of the College of Charleston offers a number of degree programs and coordinates support for its nationally recognized faculty research efforts.
The University of South Carolina, in Columbia, is a flagship, public, co-educational, research university with seven satellite campuses. It was founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, and its original campus, The Horseshoe, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The university's main campus covers over in the urban core less than one city block from the South Carolina State House. The University of South Carolina has around 35,000 students on the Columbia campus.

thumb|upright|[[Furman University bell tower near Greenville]]

Furman University is a private, coeducational, non-sectarian, liberal arts university in Greenville. Founded in 1826, Furman enrolls approximately 2,900 undergraduate and 500 graduate students. Furman is the largest private institution in South Carolina. The university is primarily focused on undergraduate education (only two departments, education and chemistry, offer graduate degrees).
Erskine College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in Due West, South Carolina. The college was founded in 1839 and is affiliated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which maintains a theological seminary on the campus.
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina is a state-supported, comprehensive college in Charleston. Founded in 1842, it is best known for its undergraduate Corps of Cadets military program for men and women, which combines academics, physical challenges and military discipline. In addition to the cadet program, the Citadel Graduate College offers evening certificate, undergraduate and graduate programs to civilians. The Citadel has 2,200 undergraduate cadets in its residential military program and 1,200 civilian students in the evening programs.
Wofford College is a small liberal arts college in Spartanburg. Wofford was founded in 1854 with a bequest of $100,000 from the Rev. Benjamin Wofford (1780–1850), a Methodist minister and Spartanburg native who sought to create a college for "literary, classical, and scientific education in my native district of Spartanburg". It is one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the American Civil War that operates on its original campus.
Newberry College is a small liberal arts college in Newberry. Founded in 1856, Newberry is a co-educational, private liberal-arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on a historic 90-acre (36 ha) campus in Newberry, South Carolina. It has roughly 1,110 students and a 14:1 student-teacher ratio. According to U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges, Newberry College ranks among the nation's top colleges in the southern region.
Claflin University, founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association, is the oldest historically black college in the state. After the Democratic-dominated legislature closed the university in 1877, before passing a law to restrict admission to whites, it designated Claflin as the only state college for blacks.
Lander University is a public liberal arts university in Greenwood. Lander was founded in 1872 as Willamston Female College. The school moved to Greenwood in 1904 and was renamed Lander College in honor of its founder, Samuel Lander. In 1973 Lander became part of the state's higher education system and is now a co-educational institution. The university is focused on undergraduate education and enrolls approximately 3,000 undergraduates.
Presbyterian College (PC) is a private liberal arts college founded in 1880 in Clinton. Presbyterian College enrolls around 1000 undergraduate students and around 200 graduate students in its pharmacy school. In 2007, Washington Monthly ranked PC as the No.1 Liberal Arts College in the nation.
Winthrop University, founded in 1886 as an all-female teaching school in Rock Hill, became a co-ed institution in 1974. It is now a public university with an enrollment of just over 6,100 students. It is one of the fastest growing universities in the state, with several new academic and recreational buildings being added to the main campus in the past five years, as well as several more planned for the near future. The Richard W. Riley College of Education is still the school's most well-known area of study.
Clemson University, founded in 1889, is a public, coeducational, land-grant research university in Clemson. It has more than 19,000 undergraduate students and 5,200 graduate students from all 50 states and from more than 70 countries. Clemson is also the home to the South Carolina Botanical Garden.
North Greenville University, founded in 1891, is a comprehensive university in Tigerville. It is affiliated with South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention, and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It has an enrollment of around 2,500 undergraduates.
South Carolina State University, founded in 1896, is a historically black university in Orangeburg. SCSU has an enrollment of nearly 5,000, and offers undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate degrees. SCSU boasts the only Doctor of Education program in the state.
Anderson University, founded in 1911, is a selective comprehensive university that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. It enrolls about 2,900 students.
Webster University, founded in 1915 in St. Louis, MO, with five extended campuses in SC, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Bob Jones University, founded in 1927, is a private, non-denominational and conservative Christian liberal arts university with a 2019 total enrollment of 3,000. BJU offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and 70 graduate programs.
Coastal Carolina University, founded in 1954, became an independent state-supported liberal arts university in 1993. The university enrolls approximately 10,500 students on its 307-acre (1.24 km2) campus in Conway, part of the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. Baccalaureate programs are offered in 51 major fields of study, along with graduate programs in education, business administration (MBA), and coastal marine and wetland studies.
Charleston Southern University, founded in 1969, is a liberal arts university, and is affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Charleston Southern (CSU) is on 300 acres, formerly the site of a rice and indigo plantation, in the city of North Charleston one of South Carolina's largest accredited, independent universities, enrolling approximately 3,400 students.
Francis Marion University, formerly Francis Marion College, is a state-supported liberal arts university near Florence, South Carolina. It was founded in 1970 and achieved university status in 1992.

Health care

For overall health care, South Carolina is ranked 37th out of the 50 states in 2022, according to The Commonwealth Fund, a private health foundation working to improve the health care system. The state's teen birth rate was 53 births per 1,000 teens, compared to the national average of 41.9 births, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The state's infant mortality rate was 9.4 deaths per 1,000 births compared to the national average of 6.9 deaths.

There were 2.6 physicians per 1,000 people compared to the national average of 3.2 physicians. There was $5,114 spent on health expenses per capita in the state, compared to the national average of $5,283. There were 26 percent of children and 13 percent of elderly living in poverty in the state, compared to 23 percent and 13 percent, respectively, doing so in the U.S. There were 34 percent of children that were overweight or obese, compared to the national average of 32 percent.

Media

There are 36 TV stations (including PBS affiliates) serving South Carolina with terrestrial, and some online streaming access. Markets in which the stations are located include Columbia, Florence, Allendale, Myrtle Beach, Greenville, Charleston, Conway, Beaufort, Hardeeville, Spartanburg, Greenwood, Anderson and Sumter. There are multiple news companies in South Carolina, some major ones are The Charleston Chronicle, Greenville News, The Post and Courier, The State, and The Sun News.

Government and politics

thumb|[[2024 United States presidential election in South Carolina|2024 U.S. presidential election results by county in South Carolina ]]

South Carolina's state government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The governor of South Carolina heads the executive branch; the South Carolina General Assembly heads the legislative branch; and the South Carolina Supreme Court heads the judicial branch.

South Carolina is a largely conservative state. Since the Declaration of Independence, South Carolina's politics have been controlled by three main parties: the Democratic-Republican Party in the early 1800s, the Democratic Party through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the Republican Party in the 21st century. Since the mid-1990s, the South Carolina General Assembly has been controlled by the Republican party, and currently, eight of nine statewide offices are held by Republican officeholders and one by a Democratic officeholder.

At the federal level, South Carolina has voted Republican in every presidential election since the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. As of the 2024 presidential election, it is the only state located on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States that has never been won by a Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 21st Century. The last Democratic candidate to carry South Carolina was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Both of the state's senators are Republican. The most recent Democratic senator to serve was Fritz Hollings, who left office in 2005. South Carolina has seven representatives in the United States House of Representatives, six of whom are Republican. thumb|left|[[South Carolina State House]]As of November 8, 2022, there were 3,740,743 registered voters. In a 2020 study, South Carolina was ranked by the Election Law Journal as the 7th hardest state for citizens to vote in. South Carolina retains the death penalty. Authorized methods of execution include by electric chair or firing squad.

An April 2023 Winthrop University poll found that an overwhelming majority of South Carolinians supported legalizing medical marijuana and believed that a separation between church and state was "critical". A large majority were also found to support same-sex marriage, legalized recreational marijuana and sports gambling, along with an independent commission system for congressional redistricting.

Culture

South Carolina has many venues for visual and performing arts. The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, the Greenville County Museum of Art, the Columbia Museum of Art, Spartanburg Art Museum, and the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia among others provide access to visual arts to the state. There are also numerous historic sites and museums scattered throughout the state paying homage to many events and periods in the state's history from Native American inhabitation to the present day.

South Carolina also has performing art venues including the Peace Center in Greenville, the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia, and the Newberry Opera House, among others to bring local, national, and international talent to the stages of South Carolina. Several large venues can house major events, including Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, and North Charleston Coliseum.

One of the nation's major performing arts festivals, Spoleto Festival USA, is held annually in Charleston. There are also countless local festivals throughout the state highlighting many cultural traditions, historical events, and folklore.

According to the South Carolina Arts Commission, creative industries generate $9.2 billion annually and support over 78,000 jobs in the state. A 2009 statewide poll by the University of South Carolina Institute for Public Service and Policy Research found that 67% of residents had participated in the arts in some form during the past year and on average citizens had participated in the arts 14 times in the previous year.

Sports

Although no major league professional sports teams are based in South Carolina, the Carolina Panthers have training facilities in the state and played their inaugural season's home games at Clemson's Memorial Stadium in 1995. They now play at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers consider themselves "The Carolinas' Team" and refrained from naming themselves after Charlotte or either of the Carolinas, as they represent both states. The Panthers prominently display the South Carolina state flag at the stadium with co-equal prominence to the North Carolina flag.

The highest level of professional sports in the state is in soccer with the Charleston Battery of the second-division USL Championship. Founded in 1993, the Battery also hold the designation as the oldest continuously operating professional soccer team in the United States, pre-dating Major League Soccer, too.

The state is also home to numerous minor league professional teams. College teams represent their particular South Carolina institutions, and are the primary options for football, basketball and baseball attendance in the state. South Carolina is also a top destination for golf and water sports.

South Carolina is also home to one of NASCAR's first tracks and its first paved speedway, Darlington Raceway, located northwest of Florence.

Notes

References

External links

Discover South Carolina, tourism website
South Carolina Encyclopedia
SCIWAY, privately maintained directory

South Carolina

Statistical areas

Languages

Religion

Transportation and infrastructure

Major highways

Primary Interstates

Auxiliary (three-digit) Interstates

Rail

Major and regional airports

Education

Higher education

Health care

Media

Government and politics

Culture

Sports

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links