County facts · Land area · October 21, 2026
Largest Counties in South Carolina by Area and Population
The largest South Carolina counties by land area and by 2023 population, plus the smallest, county seats and a link to each official parcel map.
Looking for the largest counties in South Carolina? South Carolina has 46 counties covering about 30,064 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is Horry County, at about 1,133 square miles, roughly 3.2 times the size of the smallest, McCormick County (359 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is Greenville County, with about 558,036 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.
Each table below links the county's Platbookmapper page and its official parcel viewer, so you can go straight from the numbers to the property lines.
South Carolina counties at a glance
- Counties: 46
- Land area: about 30,064 sq mi, plus about 1,959 sq mi of water inside county lines
- Residents, 2023 estimates: about 5,373,555, or about 179 people per square mile of land
- Median county land area: about 617 sq mi
- With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 44 of 46
The 10 largest South Carolina counties by land area
| # | County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | People per sq mi | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Horry County | Conway | 1,133 | 397,478 | 351 | county web map |
| 2 | Orangeburg County | Orangeburg | 1,106 | 82,820 | 75 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 3 | Berkeley County | Moncks Corner | 1,104 | 255,217 | 231 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 4 | Aiken County | Aiken | 1,071 | 177,130 | 165 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 5 | Colleton County | Walterboro | 1,057 | 38,874 | 37 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 6 | Williamsburg County | Kingstree | 934 | 29,891 | 32 | WTH GIS |
| 7 | Charleston County | Charleston | 918 | 424,367 | 462 | county web map |
| 8 | Georgetown County | Georgetown | 814 | 65,731 | 81 | listed link under review |
| 9 | Spartanburg County | Spartanburg | 808 | 356,698 | 441 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 10 | Florence County | Florence | 801 | 137,214 | 171 | county web map |
Together these 10 cover about 32% of South Carolina's land area and hold about 37% of its residents.
The 10 most populous South Carolina counties
| # | County | Seat | 2023 pop. | Land (sq mi) | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenville County | Greenville | 558,036 | 786 | county web map |
| 2 | Richland County | Columbia | 425,138 | 757 | county web map |
| 3 | Charleston County | Charleston | 424,367 | 918 | county web map |
| 4 | Horry County | Conway | 397,478 | 1,133 | county web map |
| 5 | Spartanburg County | Spartanburg | 356,698 | 808 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 6 | Lexington County | Lexington | 309,528 | 699 | county web map |
| 7 | York County | York | 298,320 | 681 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 8 | Berkeley County | Moncks Corner | 255,217 | 1,104 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 9 | Anderson County | Anderson | 213,076 | 714 | county web map |
| 10 | Beaufort County | Beaufort | 198,979 | 576 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
These 10 hold about 64% of South Carolina's residents in the 2023 estimates.
The 5 smallest South Carolina counties by land area
| County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McCormick County | McCormick | 359 | 9,941 | WTH GIS |
| Calhoun County | St. Matthews | 381 | 14,186 | county web map |
| Cherokee County | Gaffney | 393 | 56,714 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| Bamberg County | Bamberg | 393 | 12,974 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| Dillon County | Dillon | 405 | 27,698 | WTH GIS |
Most and least crowded
- Most people per square mile: Greenville County, about 710 (then Richland County, 561, and Charleston County, 462)
- Fewest people per square mile: Allendale County, about 18 (then McCormick County, 28, and Fairfield County, 30)
Counties with the most water
The Census Bureau reports water separately from land. It counts lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, for coastal and Great Lakes counties, the water inside the county boundary.
- Charleston County: about 440 sq mi of water, 32% of its total area
- Beaufort County: about 347 sq mi of water, 38% of its total area
- Georgetown County: about 221 sq mi of water, 21% of its total area
Using these numbers in a land search
- Land area is not parcel count. A large rural county can hold fewer parcels than a small suburban one, so size alone says little about how busy its parcel map is.
- Search, don't scroll. In a big county, type an address, owner name or parcel number into the viewer's search box, where it has one, instead of panning across the map.
- Records follow the county line. Deeds, plats and tax bills are kept by the county where the parcel sits, so a tract that crosses a county line usually has a parcel number in each county.
- Rounded figures. Land and water areas are rounded to whole square miles. People per square mile is the 2023 estimate divided by land area.
Related guides
- South Carolina county GIS websites by viewer
- South Carolina plat maps
- South Carolina landowner maps for hunting
- Georgia–South Carolina border counties
- North Carolina–South Carolina border counties
More: All South Carolina counties on Platbookmapper
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer files, 2020 county land and water area.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals, Vintage 2023 (July 1, 2023 estimates)
- Platbookmapper county GIS directory (live data file behind our county pages, pulled October 21, 2026) for each county's official parcel viewer.
- County seats: Wikidata (county seat property), cross-checked against Census place names.