Gyms and fitness studios in South Carolina by county

South Carolina had 565 fitness studios, gyms and recreational sports centers with paid employees in 2023. The count comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) for NAICS 713940, the industry that covers health clubs, gyms, aerobic and exercise studios and facilities built around sports such as swimming, skating or racquet sports.

Those 565 locations employed 8,356 people in the March 2023 pay period and paid $121.5 million in wages over the year. Set against the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 population estimate of 5,478,831 residents, the state has 1.03 fitness establishments per 10,000 people.

The U.S. figure is 1.19 per 10,000 (40,307 establishments across all counties in the CBP file, divided by 340.1 million residents). By that measure South Carolina has about 13% fewer employer gyms and studios per resident than the country as a whole.

Charleston County leads the state on both count and density, with 93 fitness establishments and 2.16 per 10,000 residents. Beaufort County (1.78) and Greenville County (1.51) follow. Two smaller counties also make the top ten: Darlington (8 establishments for about 62,000 people, 1.28 per 10,000) and Greenwood (7 for about 70,000, 1.00 per 10,000).

The industry is concentrated. Charleston, Greenville, Richland, York and Lexington counties together hold 312 of the state's 565 establishments, or 55%. Greenville has the largest workforce in the industry, with 1,521 employees across 86 locations.

The two leaders run different kinds of markets. Greenville averages about 18 employees per fitness location (1,521 across 86), which points to larger clubs and multi-purpose centers. Charleston averages about 10 (935 across 93), a pattern that fits a market with more boutique studios. A new studio entering Greenville competes with big-box price points; one entering Charleston competes with many small, specialized rooms.

Several of the state's fastest-growing counties have fewer fitness establishments per resident than the state average. We flagged counties with at least 25,000 residents whose 2020 to 2024 growth beat the county median (2.75%) and whose fitness density was below the state rate of 1.03.

The list is a starting point for location research. A low count can mean residents drive to a neighboring county, use a nonemployer studio or a fitness business classified elsewhere, or simply have unmet demand. It should be paired with drive-time and competitor checks on the ground.

• Horry County: 36 establishments, 0.87 per 10,000, population up 17.8% (62,353 more residents).
• Lancaster County: 8 establishments, 0.72 per 10,000, up 16.3%.
• Berkeley County: 16 establishments, 0.61 per 10,000, up 15.0% (34,495 more residents).
• Spartanburg County: 36 establishments, 0.97 per 10,000, up 12.6%.
• Dorchester County: 12 establishments, 0.69 per 10,000, up 8.3%.
• Kershaw County: 4 establishments, 0.56 per 10,000, up 9.6%.
• Jasper and Edgefield counties grew 23.7% and 14.9% and had no employer fitness establishment in CBP 2023.

Twenty-one counties had no NAICS 713940 establishment with paid employees in 2023: Abbeville, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Chester, Clarendon, Colleton, Dillon, Edgefield, Fairfield, Hampton, Jasper, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, McCormick, Newberry, Saluda, Union and Williamsburg.

Most of these are rural counties under 40,000 residents, and many lost population between 2020 and 2024. Jasper and Edgefield are the exceptions: both grew quickly, and Jasper County was named the nation's fastest-growing county by housing units in the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 release. Residents there may train in Beaufort or Aiken, at a solo-run studio that CBP does not count, or at a franchise that has not opened yet.

Most South Carolina fitness businesses are small. Of the 494 establishments with a published employee size class, 43.3% had fewer than 5 employees and 19.8% had 5 to 9. Nationally those shares are 42.6% and 17.8%.

The difference shows at the top end. Only 2.4% of South Carolina's sized fitness establishments had 50 or more employees, against 5.8% nationally, and the state averages 14.8 employees per location against 17.2 for the U.S.

Average annual payroll per employee was $14,542 in South Carolina and $19,119 nationally. That figure is low because the industry relies on part-time front-desk staff and instructors, and CBP counts every person on payroll in mid-March regardless of hours. It is a payroll-per-head figure, not a wage rate.

Demand is rising. The Health and Fitness Association reported in April 2026 that 81 million Americans held a fitness facility membership in 2025, an all-time high and a 5.2% increase from 2024. That equals 26.1% of the U.S. population aged six and older, and more than 100 million people used a facility during the year when day passes and guest visits are included.

Applied to South Carolina, a state that grew 7.0% from 2020 to 2024 against 2.6% nationally, rising membership and a lower-than-average establishment count point the same way: there is room for well-run studios in the growth counties.

Location decisions get easier with numbers. A studio weighing Berkeley County against Charleston County faces very different competition: Charleston has 2.16 establishments per 10,000 residents, Berkeley 0.61, while Berkeley added more residents in percentage terms.

Density is only one input. A studio in a dense market competes on retention, class experience and how quickly it answers a trial inquiry. A studio in an underserved, fast-growing county competes on being discovered first by new residents who are searching for a gym near their new address.

Use the county rate as a filter, then check the specific trade area. A county-level average can hide a dense cluster of studios near downtown and a thin spread in the suburbs where new subdivisions are going up.

• Check your county's rate in the table against the state figure of 1.03 per 10,000.
• In a high-density county, focus on keeping members: booking reminders, rebooking after a missed class and a clear trial-to-member path.
• In a growth county, focus on reach: an accurate Google Business Profile, location pages for the towns you serve and fast replies to new inquiries.
• Monvell builds the booking, follow-up and local visibility systems studios use for both jobs, and can pull this county data into a market review for your business.

Dataset: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, county file (cbp23co.txt, released June 2025), NAICS 713940 Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers. Population: Census Bureau Population Estimates Vintage 2024 county file (co-est2024-alldata.csv), July 1, 2024 estimates and the April 1, 2020 estimates base.

Method: we summed establishments (est), mid-March employment (emp) and annual payroll (ap) for each of South Carolina's 46 counties and divided establishments by the 2024 population to get a rate per 10,000. The U.S. rate sums every county row for NAICS 713940 in the file and divides by the sum of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Growth is the 2024 estimate divided by the 2020 base, minus one. Size shares use the size-class columns (under 5, 5 to 9, 10 to 19, 20 to 49, 50 and up) and are calculated over establishments with a published size class (494 of 565 in South Carolina).

Limits: CBP covers employer establishments only, so solo trainers and studios with no payroll are excluded; the Census Bureau publishes those in Nonemployer Statistics. Personal trainers who do not run a facility fall under NAICS 812990, and some instruction-led studios may be coded outside 713940. CBP employment is noise-infused for confidentiality and counts all employees in the March pay period, full and part time. Population figures are Vintage 2024; the Census Bureau has since released Vintage 2025, and later vintages revise earlier years.