Page 30 →7 Contemporary Landscape
Population, 2020
The interstate highway system allowed access to the state’s larger cities, and the small compact cities of the 1950s gave way to sprawling suburbanized metropolitan areas. Tourism and a growing retiree population have caused some coastal counties, especially Horry and Beaufort, to join suburban counties such as Berkeley, Dorchester, Lexington, and York as high growth areas. South Carolina has also attracted new residents to urban centers like Greenville, Charleston, Columbia, and the outskirts of Charlotte (NC). However, rural counties and many small towns located on state highways have not shared in this growth and many have lost population.
South Carolina’s population nearly doubled between 1970 and 2020, reaching over 5 million people. The decade of the 1970s, however, stands out as the most important decade of the twentieth century with respect to landscape and lifestyle change in South Carolina. It was during the 1970s when South Carolina began to experience the “Sunbelt” or “New South” population and economic growth: segregation ended; urban dwellers first outnumbered rural residents; the interstate highway system was being completed; new industries were aggressively recruited. Since then, South Carolina has grown by about half a million people every ten years.
Population Change, 1970–2020
Page 31 →Cities and Metropolitan Statistical Areas
As of 2020, there were 204 census designated places in South Carolina. These are unincorporated but locally recognized communities. Over 90 percent of census designated places have populations of 10,000 or fewer. Larger populations live in incorporated towns and cities across the state. The largest city in the state is Charleston, with just over 150,000 residents. Columbia is the second largest city. South Carolina cities are relatively small. Most US metropolitan areas have suburbs with more people than the largest South Carolina cities.
Cities
Metropolitan Statistical Areas
Another measure for population and economic integration is the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). An MSA is a way to measure combined growth of areas, recognizing the influence of cities far beyond their political borders. For example, Columbia is shown as a six-county entity that accounts for more than 830,000 people. In another example, the Augusta-Richmond County MSA, while focused on Augusta, Georgia, includes Aiken and Edgefield counties. Some residents of these two counties commute to work and shop in the Georgia city although the river and state boundary intervene.
Page 32 →Population Born and Residing in South Carolina
South Carolina’s cultural landscape has been shaped by its people, both native-born and those migrating to the state. Over the past few decades South Carolina’s resident native-born population has steadily declined to 53.7 percent in 2020. This decline is a combination of both native South Carolinians moving out and non-native South Carolinians migrating in. Rural areas, especially the Inner Coastal Plain and parts of the lower Piedmont, show the greatest persistence of resident native-born South Carolinians. Union County has the highest percentage, 82.4. Urban areas and some counties near the state border or interstate highways have drawn people from elsewhere in the country. York County, for example, includes high numbers of people working in Charlotte, North Carolina and residing in South Carolina. The lowest resident native-born percentages occur in Horry (35) and Beaufort (29.5) counties where significant in-migration has taken place over the last 30 years.
Page 33 →Race and Ethnicity
South Carolina is approximately 63 percent White and 25 percent Black, giving the state one of the highest minority population percentages in the country. Hispanic population growth has been considerable in recent decades. At the county level, the Upstate is predominately White and the Inner Coastal Plain is generally Black. The Midlands and coastal regions are mixed. These patterns vary as geographic scale changes. For example, Black populations in the Upstate are concentrated around cities like Greenville but are more dispersed in the rural counties of the Coastal Plain. Native Americans and Asians are small in number, with the former concentrated near Dillon, Dorchester, and York counties and the latter in urban areas. South Carolina has one federally recognized tribe, the Catawba Indian Nation, with over 3,300 enrolled members located along the banks of the Catawba River near Rock Hill.
Page 34 →Education
Educational attainment in South Carolina lags behind the national average in several categories. This reduces the state’s economic competitiveness since a high school diploma is necessary for many types of employment. Areas of the state that have benefited from urbanization and economic development tend to have high school diploma rates that exceed rural areas of the state with fewer economic opportunities. Technical Colleges and trade schools, pictured here, typically offer two-year programs that focus on vocational training.
Page 35 →Higher Education
Higher education opportunities include both public and private options. Four-year colleges, pictured here, often provide graduate study opportunities and may include professional schools in law or medicine. The University of South Carolina and Clemson University are the largest four-year schools in the state. Several of the state’s private colleges were founded by religious groups, including Erskine, Furman, and Presbyterian. Racial segregation led to the establishment of schools for African Americans. These Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) include Allen, Benedict, Claflin, Morris, South Carolina State, and Voorhees.
Page 36 →Military Landscape
Extended Description
Icons represent DoD and National Guard facilities, VA medical facilities, and national cemeteries.
Active military service members and veterans are an important part of South Carolina’s human geography. There are several bases and other facilities scattered across the state where members of a branch of the military or state national guard work and train. All branches are represented in at least one location, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The US Department of Veterans Affairs operates hospitals and clinics as well as national cemeteries found across South Carolina. Veterans live and work across the state after completing their careers in the military. Approximately 7 percent of the people currently living in South Carolina are veterans.
Pictured here is the William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Hospital in Columbia, SC, which serves veterans across the state.
Page 37 →Agriculture
Extended Description
Icons represent hay, peanuts, cattle, broiler, cotton, tobacco, wheat, grain, soybeans, and corn.
Contemporary agriculture in South Carolina has two main patterns: poultry and livestock in the Piedmont and central parts of the state, and row crops in the Coastal Plain. The map shows the top-producing counties for these products, but other counties also grow them in smaller amounts. Tobacco has remained concentrated in the Pee Dee for many decades. Soybean production is often rotated with corn and wheat. Broilers (chickens fewer than 10 weeks old) are mainly raised in central South Carolina. Small farms were the original broiler producers, but many operations have expanded; the long, one-story broiler house is now a common landscape feature. Cotton production increased during the 1990s after a decades-long decline. Although no longer a Piedmont crop, cotton remains in the Coastal Plain. Piedmont land that formerly grew cotton is now used for forage, small-scale cattle rearing, and pine forests.
Broiler houses can contain thousands of birds like these pictured here. Large companies own the flocks, feed mills, and processing plants, and the farmer, under contract, grows the chicks. Broilers have become a leading farm commodity in South Carolina.
Page 38 →Industry
Extended Description
Icons represent aerospace and aviation, electronics and computers, chemicals and plastics, wood and paper, textiles, medical, food, automotive, rubber, and machinery and equipment.
Tires, airplanes, cars, electric batteries: these are some of the products made in South Carolina today that were unheard of just 25 years ago. Technical education, transportation, communications, and economic development policies have encouraged both home-grown industry and foreign investment. Non-durable goods such as textiles and food processing traditionally have led the way, but machinery and electronics also are important. While companies like Sonoco (paper) and Milliken (chemical) are headquartered in the state, other highly visible manufacturers include BMW and Volvo (cars), Boeing (airplanes), and Michelin (tires). The map shows industrial facilities employing more than 500 workers. Advanced manufacturing is concentrated in the Upstate and the Lowcountry. Companies choose to locate facilities near transportation networks, like rail lines and interstate highways, that help them move their products. For example, a string of facilities follows Interstate 85 and creates a manufacturing corridor that links Atlanta, Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, Gaffney, and Charlotte.
Steel rebar—reinforcing bar—is one of many industrial items manufactured in South Carolina. At CMC Steel in Cayce, rebar is made for residential and commercial construction and highways. The company has mills in eight other states and much of their production is from recycled scrap metal.
Page 39 →Transportation
Extended Description
Icons represent international airports, regional airports, railroads, interstate highways, seaports, inland seaports, and Amtrak stations.
South Carolina has 5 interstates, 41,000 miles of highways, 2,300 miles of rail lines, and multiple ports. Trains, planes, trucks, and ships move goods and people in and out of the state on these transportation networks. There are three North-South Amtrak rail routes with passenger service, while freight moves steadily within and through the state. Air shipping companies such as UPS have hubs in the state to move more time sensitive cargo. Interstate highways appeared in the latter twentieth century, linking the state to other parts of the country, and to major international airports in Charlotte and Atlanta. Plans to expand existing routes or add new ones, such as Interstate 73 beginning in Myrtle Beach, are occasionally introduced. Since the colonial period, seaports have remained important to South Carolina commerce. Charleston is a large container port that faces the challenges of accepting larger ships and competing with other ports along the East Coast.
In the 1950s, containerization transformed global shipping. Entire containers could now be efficiently transferred between trucks and ships at ports. The Port of Charleston received its first container ship in 1966, and began expanding in 1970. Container ships have grown increasingly larger to carry more cargo. Ports and canals continue to be widened and dredged to allow larger ships to enter. Pictured here is the Wando Welch Terminal in Charleston. In 2020, Charleston’s port was the 6th largest in the US by cargo value, moving over $72 billion in imports and exports.
Page 40 →Energy Landscape
Extended Description
Icons represent electric transmission lines and various types of power plants, including nuclear, natural gas, biomass, coal, petroleum, hydroelectric, and solar.
South Carolina’s energy geography powers its people and businesses. They use electricity for lights, appliances and more, and can use natural gas for heating or cooking. Industrial facilities use electricity or natural gas to operate machines or make products to sell. Utilities are groups that generate electricity or transfer natural gas. They can include companies, government, and cooperatives owned by their members. Each utility serves a different part of the state. The map shows how webs of gas pipelines and electric power lines cross the state to connect power plants with energy users. Natural gas pipelines are usually buried underground. Electricity travels by high voltage transmission lines on tall towers, or by smaller utility poles to individual buildings. Burying local electric power lines makes them more resilient but costs more. Some ways of generating energy can harm peoples’ health or create pollution. South Carolina’s future energy use is projected to increase due to warming temperatures, more manufacturing facilities, electrification, and a growing population.
Extended Description
From least to most: renewables and other 7%, coal 14%, natural gas 24%, and nuclear 55%.
Where does our electricity come from? South Carolina generates electricity from a variety of sources, including nuclear, natural gas, coal, and renewable energy. While there are only 5 nuclear power stations in South Carolina, they collectively generate over half of the electricity produced in the state. South Carolina produces the 3rd most nuclear energy of all US states. Renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly important; all of South Carolina’s newly constructed utility-scale power generation in 2022 was powered by the sun.
Page 41 →State and National Parks
Recreation opportunities abound in the Palmetto State. Some recreation areas are artificial (like amusement parks), while others are natural. State and national parks are recreational destinations that are generally supported by public funds. They showcase unique historic, cultural, or natural features that are worth experiencing but must also be protected and preserved for future generations.
South Carolina enjoys eight important locations designated by the National Park Service. These include one national park, two national historic parks, two national historic sites, and one each of a national battlefield, military park, and historic trail. Two heritage corridors also are present. As of 2023, the state park system has forty-seven units, including eight historic sites, a recreation area, a resort park, and thirty-seven parks.
Table Rock State Park contains a monadnock, a granitic mountain feature rising above the surrounding landscape. The spectacular site moved Robert Mills to write that “Time alone has made a mark here, and the continual force of the sun’s rays, together with the descending rains, have visibly corroded this apparently imperishable monument of the Deity.”
Page 42 →Tourism
Extended Description
The tourism regions, from west to east: Lake Hartwell Country, Old 96 District, Thoroughbred Country, Lowcountry & Resort Islands, The Upcountry, Capital City and Lake Murray Country, Santee Cooper Country, Historic Charleston, Olde English District, Pee Dee Country, and Myrtle Beach & The Grand Strand.
South Carolina has many features that are attractive to both business and leisure travelers. Visitors spend money on goods and services such as restaurants, hotels, and transportation, which provides valuable income for the state. This tourism spending generated over $1.5 billion in tax revenue in 2019. Popular activities for visitors include going to the beach, visiting relatives, shopping, and dining out. Most visitors come from southern states such as North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida. The vast majority of tourist expenditures (74 percent of the state total) occur in just five counties—Horry, Charleston, Beaufort, Greenville, and Richland. South Carolina’s tourism industry was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking by an estimated 31 percent in 2020.
The state is divided into ten tourism regions which offer unique experiences for visitors. A hiking enthusiast? Try the Upcountry. Revolutionary War buff? The Old 96 or Olde English districts. Fishermen might enjoy Santee Cooper Country while NASCAR fans can take in a race in Pee Dee Country. Historic Charleston focuses on the charms of the old city and family fun and golf are major activities in Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand. Various festivals are held in each region throughout every season and provide opportunities for year-round fun.
Page 43 →Religion
Religious life in South Carolina has been overwhelmingly Christian for the past 300 years. Four of the leading religious groups in the state are Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran.
Baptists, South Carolina’s largest religious group, worship in more than 3,500 churches, nearly 40 percent of the total.
Methodist congregations, the second most numerous group, are located throughout the state and have a slightly higher concentration within the Coastal Plain.
Scotch-Irish migration in the mid-1700s resulted in more Presbyterian churches in the Catawba River valley and portions of the Upstate. German migration was responsible for a strong Lutheran presence that still exists in Lexington, Newberry, and Saluda counties.
Page 44 →Religion
Faiths newer to South Carolina, such as Baha’i, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, tend to concentrate in the state’s urban areas. Most of these groups have grown since 1960.
Recent Catholic growth is related to two different migration trends: northern retirees (Horry, Charleston, and Beaufort counties) and Hispanic immigration (Jasper, Saluda).
By 1820 Charleston had the nation’s most populous Jewish community. Today, the Jewish population is less numerous statewide and synagogues are primarily located in urban areas capable of support.
Episcopalians are the successors to the Church of England, the de-facto state religion at the colony’s founding. Presently their churches are found in larger population centers, but their early Charleston origins are still apparent.
Page 45 →Barbeque Regions
Major Barbeque Sauce Types
Extended Description
The four barbecue regions, from west to east: ketchup, tomato, mustard, and vinegar and pepper.
South Carolina barbeque is pork that is slow cooked and hand pulled or shredded. It usually is flavored with a tangy sauce. There are four major types of sauce. Barbeque often is served on festive occasions such as holiday celebrations, reunions, weddings, tailgating parties, fundraisers, and political meetings. Many barbeque restaurants are open only on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Cooking methods, cuts of pork, sauce type, and side dishes served vary widely across the state. Barbeque encourages friendly debate because South Carolinians often have a strong preference for a particular type that reflects the cultural character and identity of a specific region or place.
Barbecue restaurants are an important part of the cultural landscape for many South Carolinians. People gather in these spaces to eat food, often from a buffet, and catch up on local news and family updates through conversations with neighbors. Pictured here is a typical plate of barbeque served at a buffet in the Midlands. While pulled pork is the star of the meal, sides like green beans, macaroni and cheese, bread and butter pickles, and hush puppies (fried cornmeal batter) are an important part of this culinary tradition.
Page 46 →College Football
This map shows where NCAA Division I teams in South Carolina play college football. There are 3 Football Bowl Subdivision and 6 Football Championship Subdivision teams across the state.
College sports are actively followed by South Carolinians. Many South Carolina colleges and universities field teams in baseball and softball, basketball, soccer, swimming and diving, track and field, and volleyball. Some also support sports such as equestrian, golf, and tennis. One sport, however, dominates South Carolina’s college athletic scene: football. Thousands of South Carolinians spend their Saturdays in the fall attending college football games, even following their team out of state for a “road” game. For some the tailgate party, often with pork barbeque, is more important than the game. Six major athletic conferences boast South Carolina members: the Atlantic Coast (Clemson); the Big South–OVC (Charleston Southern); the Mid-Eastern (South Carolina State); the Pioneer (Presbyterian); the Southeastern (South Carolina); Southern (The Citadel, Furman, Wofford); and the Sun Belt (Coastal Carolina). Allen, Benedict, Erskine, Limestone, Newberry, and North Greenville also field teams in NCAA Division II. Athletic conferences demonstrate the connectedness that South Carolina has with other places.
Clemson University’s Memorial Stadium, also known as Death Valley, is home to the Clemson Tigers, a NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision team. Built in 1942, the stadium has grown over time and is now the largest football stadium in South Carolina. It can seat up to 81,500 fans.
Page 47 →Electoral Geography
South Carolina increased its Electoral College representation to nine votes following a population increase between the 2000 and 2010 Census. The state’s largest number of votes was eleven from 1813–1840. Its smallest number was zero during secession in 1864. Fifty-nine presidential elections have been held since George Washington was elected in 1789. Over the past ten elections, South Carolina has voted five times for the winning presidential candidate. This map shows the voting pattern for the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 elections. Eight counties flipped at least once between the Democratic and Republican parties. While South Carolina’s Electoral College votes over these four elections have all gone to the Republican candidate, this map shows how people voted for different parties in different counties and regions.
Polling Places Across South Carolina
Election Results: 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020
Local, state, and national election outcomes are determined by people who vote at specific local polling places. Typical locations for polling places often include schools, police and fire stations, post offices, places of worship, and local government facilities. These polling places allow the votes of South Carolinians across the state to influence political decisions made at different levels of governments. This map of individual polling places shows how metropolitan areas with more voters have more polling places to accommodate them.
Page 48 →Geographic Regions
Extended Description
The eight regions, from northwest to southeast: Blue Ridge, Upper Piedmont Manufacturing, Forested Lower Piedmont, Midlands, Agricultural Coastal Plain, Pee Dee, Plantation Forest, and Coastal Zone.
South Carolina can be divided into eight distinct regions based on both its physical and cultural landscapes. The Blue Ridge is a small mountainous area that is sparsely populated but well known for its recreation resources. The Upper Piedmont Manufacturing region used to be identified with the textile industry and mill villages, but recently developed a diversified manufacturing base with many foreign-owned industries along Interstate 85. Greenville and Spartanburg have grown considerably in population alongside this development.
The Forested Lower Piedmont region was once a major cotton producer, but pastures and pine forest now dominate its landscape. The Midlands region stretches from Aiken to Camden and includes Columbia, the capital and center of state government. Columbia has a diverse economy with industries like manufacturing, military, and healthcare. The Pee Dee region is known for its long history of tobacco production. It is largely rural, and its topography ranges from rolling to nearly flat. Florence, originally a railroad hub, is a growing metropolitan area.
The gently rolling topography of the Agricultural Coastal Plain region, along with the Pee Dee, makes up the agricultural heart of South Carolina. The mostly flat Plantation Forest region has struggled economically, suffering from a lack of industrial development. Nearly three-fourths of the area is in forest, but suburbanization is occurring along its coast-side margin. The beaches and golf courses of the Coastal Zone attract North American and international tourists and retirees. Other tourists are drawn to the historic Lowcountry landscape that stretches from Georgetown to Beaufort and is focused on Charleston. Now the state’s largest city, Charleston has a fast growing economy and population.
Regions are constantly evolving, and their boundaries move over time and space. Where are you located in South Carolina, and what makes your region unique? What can maps help us communicate about the places we call home in South Carolina?
From the mountains to the sea, South Carolina contains a unique cultural and physical landscape all under one flag.