The fastest-growing cities and towns in South Carolina

Hardeeville is the fastest-growing city in South Carolina. Its population rose from 7,498 in April 2020 to 13,862 in July 2024, an 84.9% increase, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 city and town estimates. Fort Mill (47.8%), Blythewood (41.5%), Moncks Corner (37.9%) and Fountain Inn (32.4%) complete the top five among places with at least 5,000 residents.

Greer (30.9%) and Bluffton (30.5%) also grew by more than 30%. Both are already mid-sized cities, with 46,316 and 36,146 residents in 2024, so their growth adds large numbers of new households.

We limited the percentage ranking to places with at least 5,000 residents in 2024, because very small towns can post large percentage swings from a few hundred new residents. There are 66 such places in the state.

Fort Mill added the most residents, 11,715, followed by North Charleston (11,120) and Greer (10,938). Bluffton (8,443), Columbia (7,983) and Charleston (7,066) are next. Columbia and Charleston grew more slowly in percentage terms (5.8% and 4.7%) but their size means they still add thousands of residents.

The 25 places with the largest numeric gains added 122,405 people combined, about 34% of South Carolina's total increase of 360,579. The rest of the growth went to smaller towns and to unincorporated areas, which hold most of the state's population and are not counted in city totals.

The state's largest cities are growing, but more slowly than their suburbs. Charleston, the largest city, grew 4.7% to 157,665. Columbia grew 5.8% to 144,788, and North Charleston grew 9.7% to 126,005. Mount Pleasant (95,604) grew 5.1%, Greenville (74,371) 4.6% and Rock Hill (75,798) 1.9%.

Among the next tier, Goose Creek (9.5%) and Myrtle Beach (13.6%) grew fastest, while Summerville grew 3.5% and Florence 2.0%. Sumter, with 42,958 residents, was the only city above 40,000 to lose population.

Taken together, South Carolina's 271 incorporated cities and towns grew 7.6%, from 1,892,339 to 2,035,222, roughly in line with the state as a whole. They hold about 37% of the state's residents. The rest live in unincorporated areas, which have no city government of their own and are counted only in county totals.

The fastest-growing places fall into five clusters, each tied to a larger metro economy.

Unincorporated communities are part of each cluster but do not appear in city rankings. Areas outside city limits around Fort Mill, Bluffton, Summerville and Simpsonville are growing as well, which is why county growth in our county rankings can run ahead of the cities inside them.

• Charlotte suburbs (York and Lancaster counties): Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Clover, York and Lancaster, plus small fast-growing towns such as Van Wyck (18.6%) and Kershaw (16.1%).
• Greenville and Spartanburg suburbs: Greer, Fountain Inn, Mauldin, Simpsonville, Easley, Travelers Rest, Woodruff and Lyman.
• Lowcountry: Hardeeville, Bluffton and Port Royal near Hilton Head and Savannah, and Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Hanahan and North Charleston in the Charleston metro.
• Grand Strand: Conway, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach in Horry County, plus Loris (15.6%) among smaller towns.
• Midlands: Blythewood north of Columbia and Camden in Kershaw County.

Of the 66 places with at least 5,000 residents, 52 grew and 14 lost population between 2020 and 2024. The largest percentage declines were in Bennettsville (6.5%), Marion (5.1%), Dillon (4.2%), Union (3.1%), Darlington (2.6%) and Lake City (2.0%), most of them in the Pee Dee region.

Sumter, the largest declining city, lost 530 residents (1.2%). Across all 271 incorporated places in South Carolina, 166 grew.

Several towns under 5,000 residents are growing at rates that match the larger leaders. Among towns with at least 500 residents in 2020, Van Wyck (18.6%), Kershaw (16.1%) and Heath Springs (14.8%) in Lancaster County, Loris (15.6%) in Horry County and Duncan (13.5%) in Spartanburg County grew fastest.

These towns sit on the edges of the main growth belts. For a service business with a regional footprint, they show where growth is spreading outward from the suburbs, and they are worth naming in service-area settings and on location pages before competitors do.

For Fort Mill, yes. The Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 city and town release in May 2026 reported that Fort Mill grew 6.8% to 38,673 between July 2024 and July 2025, ranking 20th nationally among places with 20,000 or more residents and fastest in the Charlotte metro area.

The same release noted that Jasper County, home to Hardeeville, had the fastest-growing housing stock of any U.S. county for the second year in a row. New housing usually means new households that need local services.

A fast-growing town creates new customers who have no existing providers. They search for a dentist, a salon, a lawn service or an accountant near their new address, and the businesses that appear first in map results and answer quickly win those first appointments.

City growth also changes how a business should describe its service area. If you serve Greer, Fountain Inn or Moncks Corner but your website only names the larger city nearby, residents of those towns may not find you. Monvell builds location pages and local search setups that name the specific towns a business serves, using the same Census data to choose which towns deserve their own page.

Plan to refresh the numbers once a year. The Census Bureau has published new city and town estimates each May (Vintage 2024 in May 2025 and Vintage 2025 in May 2026), and each release revises earlier years. A town that was growing fast in one release may slow in the next, so treat the rankings as a guide for where to look, then confirm with your own inquiry and customer data.

• List the growing towns within your service area.
• Confirm your Google Business Profile service area includes them.
• Add a location page for any town that is large and growing and sends you customers.
• Watch inquiry volume by town to see whether growth is reaching your business.

Dataset: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, Vintage 2024 subcounty file (sub-est2024.csv), released May 2025. We used summary level 162 (incorporated places) for South Carolina, which gives one total per city even when it spans counties, so there is no double counting. County assignment uses the county-part rows (summary level 157) and shows the county holding the largest share of each city's 2024 population.

Method: growth equals the July 1, 2024 estimate divided by the April 1, 2020 estimates base, minus one. Numeric change equals the 2024 estimate minus the 2020 base. The percentage ranking includes the 66 places with at least 5,000 residents in 2024; the numeric ranking includes all 271 incorporated places. The share of state growth compares the top 25 numeric gains with the state's change in the county file.

Limits: city estimates use boundaries as of January 1, 2024, so a city's growth can include residents added by annexation as well as people moving in. Census designated places, such as unincorporated communities, are not included. Estimates for small places carry more uncertainty, and Vintage 2025 has since revised earlier years.