Caterers and mobile food businesses in South Carolina by county

South Carolina had 306 catering and mobile food establishments with paid employees in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP). Of those, 145 were caterers (NAICS 722320) and 161 were mobile food services (NAICS 722330), the category that covers food trucks, carts and mobile concession stands.

Together they employed 2,227 people in the March 2023 pay period and paid $52.7 million in annual payroll. Caterers carry most of the workforce: 1,775 employees against 452 in mobile food.

Measured against the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 population estimate of 5,478,831, the state has 0.56 of these businesses per 10,000 residents. The U.S. rate is 0.69 (23,567 establishments for 340.1 million people), so South Carolina has roughly 19% fewer per resident. The gap is wider for caterers (0.26 in South Carolina against 0.36 nationally) than for mobile food services (0.29 against 0.33).

Charleston County dominates. It has 83 catering and mobile food establishments, 27% of the state total, and 1.93 per 10,000 residents. It also has 714 of the state's 1,775 catering employees, or 40%, which reflects the county's wedding, tourism and convention trade.

Beaufort County ranks second on density (1.14 per 10,000) and Jasper County third (1.12), though Jasper's figure rests on just 4 establishments. Among the larger counties, Greenville (39), Richland (29) and York (21) follow Charleston on count.

Several fast-growing counties have few employer caterers for their size. We flagged counties with at least 25,000 residents whose 2020 to 2024 population growth beat the county median (2.75%) and whose catering density sat below the state rate of 0.56 per 10,000.

Horry County is the clearest case. It added 62,353 residents from 2020 to 2024, more than any other county, yet has 20 catering and mobile food establishments for 413,391 people (0.48 per 10,000), about a quarter of Charleston's rate. Weddings, reunions and corporate events in the Grand Strand are being served by fewer local employer caterers per resident, by caterers traveling in, or by restaurants that cater on the side and are coded as restaurants.

• Horry County: 20 establishments, 0.48 per 10,000, population up 17.8%.
• Lancaster County: 5 establishments, 0.45 per 10,000, up 16.3%.
• Berkeley County: 8 establishments, 0.30 per 10,000, up 15.0%.
• Spartanburg County: 11 establishments, 0.30 per 10,000, up 12.6%.
• Lexington County: 11 establishments, 0.35 per 10,000, up 6.8%.
• Edgefield County grew 14.9% and had no employer caterer or mobile food business.

Mobile food businesses with employees cluster in the same metros as caterers, with a few differences. Charleston County has 37, Greenville County 18, York County 14, Horry County 12 and Beaufort and Richland counties 10 each.

York County is the notable case. It has twice as many mobile food establishments as caterers (14 against 7), the reverse of the pattern in Richland, where caterers outnumber trucks 19 to 10. York sits in the Charlotte metro area and its towns, such as Fort Mill and Tega Cay, are among the fastest-growing places in the state: Fort Mill grew 47.8% from 2020 to 2024 in Census estimates.

Mobile food businesses are small by design. They average 2.8 employees per location in South Carolina, and every one with a published size class had fewer than 5 employees. A single truck often runs on the owner plus one or two staff, so marketing, booking and payments tend to sit with the same person who cooks.

Twenty-six counties had no employer caterer or mobile food service in CBP 2023. They include Orangeburg (83,129 residents), Laurens (70,545), Greenwood (70,041) and Darlington (62,425), which are large enough to hold regular weddings, church events, school functions and company gatherings.

A zero in this data does not mean nobody caters there. Restaurants, church kitchens, event venues with in-house staff and owner-operated businesses with no payroll all serve these events. It does mean no business with employees reported catering or mobile food as its main activity in that county.

Caterers in South Carolina average 12.2 employees per location (U.S.: 11.7), while mobile food businesses average 2.8 (U.S.: 3.2). Among the 110 South Carolina caterers with a published size class, 56.4% had fewer than 5 employees and 15.5% had 20 to 49, a higher share in that larger band than the U.S. figure of 9.4%.

Pay is lower than the national level. Annual payroll per employee was $23,810 for South Carolina caterers against $31,250 nationally. Catering relies heavily on part-time and event-day staff, and CBP divides annual payroll by everyone on payroll in mid-March, so this is payroll per head, not an hourly wage.

For a caterer, the county data shapes two choices: where to market and how to win the inquiry. In Charleston, with nearly two caterers or food trucks for every 10,000 residents and a large tourism trade, the buyer is comparing options side by side. Speed of reply, clear menus and pricing ranges, and reviews decide who gets the booking.

In Horry, Berkeley, Spartanburg and Lancaster, the buyer may struggle to find a local caterer at all. There the work is being visible: showing up in map results for the towns you serve, having service pages for weddings, corporate events and private dinners, and making it easy to request a quote.

Both markets reward the same basics: answering inquiries quickly, following up on quotes that went quiet and asking satisfied clients for reviews after each event.

• Compare your county's rate with the state figure of 0.56 per 10,000 before choosing which markets to advertise in.
• Publish separate pages for each event type you serve so search engines can match the inquiry.
• Track how many event inquiries arrive, how fast you answer and how many turn into signed events.
• Monvell builds the quoting, inquiry follow-up and local marketing systems event food businesses use, and can turn this county data into a market plan for your team.

Dataset: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, county file (cbp23co.txt, released June 2025), NAICS 722320 Caterers and 722330 Mobile Food Services. Caterers here means businesses providing single event-based food service, including banquet halls with catering staff; contract food service at another organization's site (NAICS 722310) is excluded. Population: Census Bureau Population Estimates Vintage 2024 county file (co-est2024-alldata.csv).

Method: for each of 46 counties we summed establishments, mid-March employment and annual payroll across the two codes and divided establishments by the July 1, 2024 population. The U.S. rate sums every county row for the same codes and divides by the population of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Growth is the 2024 estimate over the April 1, 2020 base, minus one. Size-class shares are calculated over establishments with a published size class (110 of 145 South Carolina caterers).

Limits: CBP counts employer establishments only. Food trucks and caterers with no payroll are excluded and appear in Census Nonemployer Statistics, so the true number of businesses is higher, especially for mobile food. Restaurants that cater as a side line are coded as restaurants. Small county counts (under 10) swing easily from year to year. CBP employment is noise-infused and counts full- and part-time staff in the March pay period. Population figures are Vintage 2024; Vintage 2025 has since been released.