South Carolina's fastest-growing counties and their business density

Jasper County is the fastest-growing county in South Carolina. Its population rose from 28,805 in April 2020 to 35,618 in July 2024, a gain of 23.7%, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 county estimates. Horry County (17.8%), Lancaster County (16.3%), Berkeley County (15.0%) and Edgefield County (14.9%) round out the top five.

The state as a whole grew 7.0%, from 5,118,252 to 5,478,831. That was the fifth-fastest rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia over the period, behind Idaho, Florida, Texas and Utah, and well above the U.S. rate of 2.6%.

Growth is not universal. Thirty-one counties grew and 15 lost population, mostly smaller rural counties such as Allendale, Marlboro, Williamsburg and Lee, along with Orangeburg and Sumter. Allendale County fell the most, down 6.1%.

Horry County added the most residents, 62,353 between 2020 and 2024. Greenville (45,202), Spartanburg (41,259) and Berkeley (34,495) follow. Charleston, York, Lexington, Lancaster, Beaufort and Richland complete the top ten, each adding between 14,505 and 22,471 people.

Those ten counties account for 80.9% of South Carolina's total gain. For a service business, numeric growth is often the better planning measure: a county that adds 40,000 people creates more new customers than a small county growing at a faster percentage.

People moving in from other states and other parts of South Carolina. From April 2020 to July 2024, net domestic migration added 314,953 residents to the state and net international migration added 60,691. Natural change was negative: the state recorded 18,048 more deaths than births over the period.

The county pattern is sharper. Horry County had 7,456 more deaths than births and still grew by 62,353, because net domestic migration brought in 64,842 people. Twenty-three counties grew despite having more deaths than births. Only eight counties had natural increase: Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester, Greenville, Lexington, Richland, Spartanburg and York.

Housing follows the same map. In its Vintage 2024 release, the Census Bureau reported that Jasper County was the nation's fastest-growing county by housing units, with its housing stock up 8.4% between 2023 and 2024. Hardeeville, the county's largest city, grew 84.9% from 2020 to 2024 in the Census Bureau's city and town estimates, the fastest rate of any South Carolina municipality with 5,000 or more residents.

Migrant-driven growth matters for service businesses because new arrivals have no existing dentist, salon, mechanic, accountant or cleaning service. They search, compare and choose, often within their first months in a new home.

We set each county's 2020 to 2024 growth against its number of service businesses per 1,000 residents, using County Business Patterns 2023. The median county grew 2.78% and had 10.3 service establishments per 1,000 residents. Counties above the median on growth and below it on density are places where population has moved ahead of the local service base.

Eight counties meet both tests. A looser test, density below the statewide figure of 14.1 per 1,000, adds most of the fast-growing suburban counties around Charlotte, Greenville-Spartanburg, Charleston and Augusta.

• Lancaster County: up 16.3%, 10.2 service businesses per 1,000.
• Berkeley County: up 15.0%, 9.7 per 1,000.
• Edgefield County: up 14.9%, 6.3 per 1,000.
• Kershaw County: up 9.6%, 9.6 per 1,000.
• Pickens County: up 5.2%, 10.0 per 1,000.
• McCormick (up 4.8%, 6.1), Laurens (up 4.5%, 7.6) and Chesterfield (up 2.8%, 8.3).
• Below the state rate but above the median: Jasper (11.7), Spartanburg (11.4), Anderson (11.4), Aiken (10.9), Dorchester (10.5) and York (13.5).

Fifteen counties lost population between 2020 and 2024. The steepest percentage declines were in Allendale (6.1%), Marlboro (4.4%), Williamsburg (3.7%), Lee (3.5%) and Bamberg (3.3%). The largest numeric losses were in Marlboro (1,171), Williamsburg (1,161) and Orangeburg (1,100).

All 15 had more deaths than births. In eight of them (Allendale, Bamberg, Dillon, Hampton, Lee, Marlboro, Sumter and Williamsburg), more people also moved out to other counties and states than moved in from them. In the other seven, modest in-migration from elsewhere in the country did not offset the natural decrease. Service businesses there face a shrinking local customer base, so growth tends to come from serving a wider area, adding services for existing customers or winning share from competitors that close.

Newer Census data says yes for the leaders. In its Vintage 2025 release in March 2026, the Census Bureau ranked Jasper County as the fastest-growing U.S. county with at least 20,000 residents from July 2024 to July 2025, up 6.0%. The Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach metro area (Horry County) was the second-fastest-growing metro in the country at 3.2%, and the Spartanburg metro was third at 2.8%.

A Census Bureau analysis of domestic migration published the same month reported that Jasper County reached the top domestic migration spot in the nation in 2025, after ranking 17th in 2022, 11th in 2023 and third in 2024. Vintage 2025 revises earlier years, so the 2024 figures in our table differ slightly from the newest release.

Growth counties reward businesses that show up early. New residents are building their list of local providers from scratch, and they rely on map results, reviews and websites to do it. A business in Lancaster, Berkeley or Spartanburg that is easy to find and quick to respond can win customers who will stay for years.

For businesses based in denser counties such as Charleston, Greenville or Richland, the neighboring growth counties are the natural expansion territory. Monvell helps service businesses size these markets with public data and build the location pages, listings and follow-up systems to reach them.

• Find your county in the table and note its growth and density.
• Check whether your service area includes a neighboring high-growth, low-density county.
• Make sure your Google Business Profile and website name the growing towns you serve.
• Track which ZIP codes your new customers come from to confirm the trend in your own data.

Datasets: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Vintage 2024 county file (co-est2024-alldata.csv), which includes the April 1, 2020 estimates base, July 1 estimates for 2020 to 2024 and components of change. U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, county file (cbp23co.txt). Monvell's derived file data/areas.json combines the two.

Method: growth equals the July 1, 2024 estimate divided by the April 1, 2020 base, minus one. Migration and natural change are the sums of the annual components for 2020 (a partial year starting April 1) through 2024. Service businesses are employer establishments in NAICS sectors 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 61, 62, 71, 72 and 81, divided by the 2024 population. The statewide density of 14.1 uses the 77,275 establishments CBP assigns to counties. State growth ranks compare the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the same file. Medians are across all 46 counties.

Limits: CBP counts employer establishments only and is dated March 2023, while population runs to July 2024. Estimates for small counties carry more uncertainty, and each new vintage revises earlier years. Density says nothing about quality or capacity of existing businesses, and residents often buy services across county lines.