South Carolina small business statistics 2026: a compiled outlook

South Carolina small business statistics 2026 data show a state where almost every business is small and the service economy is adding jobs faster than the rest. The SBA Office of Advocacy's 2025 South Carolina profile counts 530,402 small businesses, 99.4% of all businesses in the state. Most (440,037) have no employees. The rest employ 863,326 people, or 42.9% of the state's private workforce.

This outlook compiles the SBA profile, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (SC DEW) employment release for September 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' county employment and wage release for the first quarter of 2026, the Census Bureau's weekly business application counts and our own calculations from Census County Business Patterns and population estimates. It complements our county-level research articles, which go deeper on specific industries and regions.

530,402, according to the SBA's 2025 profile, which uses 2022 business counts. Women own 46.3% of those businesses (220,824), veterans own 8.4% (39,059) and Hispanic owners 6.2% (30,865). Small business employment in the state grew 21.3% from 1998 to 2022, which the SBA notes was faster than the national small business growth rate.

Looking at physical locations with employees, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns counted 122,958 establishments in South Carolina in 2023. By our count from that file, 72.2% of them (88,739) had fewer than 10 employees and 85.2% had fewer than 20. Even firms that feel established locally are usually small teams, which shapes what systems and support make sense for them.

Service industries lead. The SBA profile lists accommodation and food services as the largest small business employer in the state with 151,187 employees, followed by health care and social assistance (114,671), retail trade (82,198), construction (80,328) and manufacturing (75,746).

Small firms are also where most of the state's job growth comes from. From March 2023 to March 2024, South Carolina added 35,780 net new jobs, and 25,358 of them (70.9%) were at small businesses. Over the same period, 19,401 small business establishments opened and 16,287 closed, a reminder that the base turns over every year even as it grows.

For service businesses specifically, the SBA figures confirm what most local operators already see: the biggest small business sectors in South Carolina are the ones that serve people directly, where the customer experience (how fast someone answers, how easy it is to book) is part of the product.

It is growing, with services in front. SC DEW's September 2026 release (published October 20, 2026) reported a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 4.0%, down from August, compared with 4.2% nationally. Nonfarm payroll employment reached 2,441,300, up 55,200 or 2.3% from September 2025.

Leisure and hospitality added the most jobs over the year (17,100, up 6.1%), followed by education and health services (11,300, up 3.6%) and professional and business services (8,000, up 2.5%). The information sector was the only one to shrink, down 2,200 jobs (8.1%). For restaurants, hotels, venues, caterers, medical practices and professional firms, that means more competition for staff and more customers in the market at the same time.

Average pay is rising faster than employment. The BLS county employment and wages release for the first quarter of 2026 put South Carolina's average weekly wage at $1,296, up 4.0% from a year earlier, while covered employment grew 0.7% to 2,326,600 (these are different measures from the DEW payroll survey above, so the growth rates differ).

The largest job centers are Greenville County (302,800 jobs, average weekly wage $1,346), Charleston County (285,400, $1,492) and Richland County (228,100, $1,326), followed by Spartanburg, Horry, Lexington and York. Charleston posted the fastest wage growth among the large counties at 5.7%. Horry County's lower average wage ($974) likely reflects its tourism-heavy job mix.

Wages also show how different the state's regions are as places to run a service business. A clinic or law office in Charleston is paying staff in a market where average weekly pay is about 50% higher than in Horry County, while a restaurant group on the Grand Strand faces a far more seasonal workforce. Pricing, staffing plans and even which services to promote should reflect the county, not a statewide average.

Yes, and quickly. By our calculation from Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates, South Carolina grew from 5,118,252 (April 2020 base) to 5,478,831 in July 2024, an increase of 7.0%. That was the fifth-fastest growth among the 50 states over the period, behind Idaho, Florida, Texas and Utah. In the single year to July 2024, the state grew 1.69%, fourth among the states.

Most of that growth comes from people moving in. Census estimates show net domestic migration of 68,043 into South Carolina in the year to July 2024, and total net migration of 91,277. New residents need doctors, dentists, insurance, legal help, home services and somewhere to get their hair cut, and most of them start by searching online.

New business formation is steady as well. The Census Bureau's weekly Business Formation Statistics, published through FRED, recorded between 1,950 and 2,400 business applications per week in South Carolina in the five weeks ending August 1, 2026.

For a South Carolina service business, the 2026 numbers point to more customers and more competition at once. Monvell is based in Columbia and works with service businesses across the state; our Consulting work starts by reading local data like this against your own numbers to decide where to focus first.

• Plan for newcomers. With net domestic migration of about 68,000 people a year, a meaningful share of your future customers do not know your name yet and will find you through search, maps and reviews.
• Expect hiring competition in service sectors. Leisure and hospitality and health care are adding jobs fastest, so restaurants, venues, practices and clinics are competing for the same front-office and service staff.
• Budget for wage growth near 4%. The BLS first-quarter figure is a reasonable planning number for pay increases across the state, higher in Charleston.
• Benchmark against small peers. With 85% of establishments under 20 employees, most of your competitors are small teams too, and the ones with better systems will respond faster.
• Watch your county, not only the state. Growth, wages and job mix differ widely between the Upstate, the Midlands, the Lowcountry and the Grand Strand.

Datasets: SBA Office of Advocacy South Carolina 2025 State Profile (business counts and ownership from 2022 data; job creation from March 2023 to March 2024); SC DEW Employment Situation for September 2026 (seasonally adjusted household and payroll surveys); BLS County Employment and Wages in South Carolina, first quarter 2026; Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics via FRED series BUSAPPWNSASC (weekly, not seasonally adjusted).

Our calculations: establishment counts and size shares come from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns 2023 county file (cbp23co), summing all-industry rows (NAICS code "------") for South Carolina (state FIPS 45) across counties, including statewide establishments not assigned to a county. "Under 10 employees" adds the size classes for fewer than 5 and 5 to 9 employees; "under 20" also adds 10 to 19. Population growth uses the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 county and state population estimates file, comparing the April 2020 estimates base with the July 2024 estimate, and ranks the 50 states plus the District of Columbia (D.C. excluded from the state ranks quoted).

Limits: CBP counts establishments with paid employees and excludes most government and self-employed activity; it is a 2023 snapshot. SBA business counts include nonemployer firms and use 2022 data. Population estimates are modeled and revised each year.