Insurance agencies in South Carolina: a county-by-county count

There were 2,041 insurance agencies and brokerages with paid employees in South Carolina in 2023 (NAICS 524210), according to the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP). They reported 9,731 employees in the March pay period and $730.3 million in annual payroll, an average of 4.8 people per agency and about $75,050 in payroll per employee.

Against the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 population estimate of 5,478,831, that is 3.73 agencies per 10,000 residents, or one agency for every 2,684 people. Summed across all U.S. counties, the same code counts 133,245 agencies and a rate of 3.92 per 10,000. South Carolina is about 4.8 percent below the national rate.

The code covers captive and independent agencies, brokerages and agency offices that sell for a single carrier. CBP does not distinguish between them, and it excludes agents who work alone with no employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook reports that agencies and brokerages employ 63 percent of insurance sales agents and that 12 percent are self-employed.

Charleston County has the most insurance agencies per resident, at 5.38 per 10,000, followed closely by Lexington (5.32), Georgetown (5.30) and Greenville (5.10). Richland, Beaufort and Dillon complete the seven counties at or above the U.S. rate. In raw counts, Greenville leads with 291 agencies, then Charleston (232), Richland (204), Lexington (167) and Horry (145). Those five counties hold 50.9 percent of the state's agencies.

Lexington stands out. It has the fourth-highest agency count in the state but a lower population than Charleston or Richland, which pushes its rate near the top. Its employment figure (516) carries the Census high-noise flag, so its average agency size should be read with care, but the establishment count itself is not noise-adjusted.

Agency density falls in the counties that are adding people fastest. Jasper County grew 23.7 percent from 2020 to 2024 and has 6 agencies for 35,618 residents (1.68 per 10,000). Edgefield grew 14.9 percent and has the lowest published rate in the state, 1.02. Berkeley (2.42), Lancaster (2.69) and Spartanburg (2.90) are all below the state rate. Horry, which grew 17.8 percent, is close to it at 3.51.

Taken together, the six counties that grew 10 percent or more average 2.90 agencies per 10,000 residents. New residents need auto, home and renters policies within weeks of moving, and many of them start with a search for an agency nearby.

• Only Allendale County (7,551 residents) has no published agency count. CBP publishes a county cell only when it covers three or more establishments.
• Abbeville (1.63) and Laurens (1.84) also sit near the bottom of the published rates.

Most South Carolina agencies are small, though slightly larger than the national pattern. 68.9 percent have fewer than five employees, compared with 72.1 percent nationally, and 19.7 percent have five to nine (16.6 percent nationally). Only 2.2 percent have 20 or more employees.

At four or five people, an agency handles quoting, service requests, renewals and claims questions with the same team that sells new policies. That makes response time and follow-up the main levers on growth, since a quote request that waits a day often goes to another agency or straight to a carrier's website.

Use them alongside what the BLS says about demand. The Occupational Outlook Handbook projects insurance sales agent employment to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 43,100 openings a year nationally. It also notes that many clients research and buy insurance online, which reduces demand for agents, while agents are still needed to help clients choose the right coverage. An agency's edge is the advice and the speed of its response.

Agencies are also present in small counties where many other professional services are not. Dillon, Hampton, Colleton and Newberry all have agency rates near or above the state figure. In those markets the competition is a handful of familiar names, and the deciding factors are usually reputation, referrals and how easy the agency is to reach when a client has a claim or a billing question. Reviews and a fast reply to every call and message carry more weight there than paid advertising.

• In dense markets (Charleston, Lexington, Greenville, Richland), focus on response speed to quote requests, review volume and a clear explanation of the carriers and lines you write.
• In growth counties with thin supply (Jasper, Berkeley, Lancaster, Edgefield), a page for each community you serve and an accurate Google Business Profile reach new residents shopping for their first local policy.
• Use renewals and life events (a new home, a new driver, a new business) as planned follow-up points. They are where small agencies win cross-sell business.
• If you are adding a second office, compare the county's rate and growth with the state figures before signing a lease.

County data shows where the opportunity is; quote and follow-up data shows whether an agency captures it. Monvell's Marketing and Communications teams help agencies get discovered in the counties they target and respond to every quote request quickly, including after hours.

Dataset: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, county file (cbp23co.txt), NAICS 524210 (insurance agencies and brokerages). CBP covers establishments with paid employees; employment is for the pay period including March 12 and payroll is annual. CBP data from 2017 to 2023 use 2017 NAICS codes.

Population: Census Bureau Vintage 2024 county estimates (co-est2024-alldata.csv), POPESTIMATE2024. Growth is POPESTIMATE2024 divided by ESTIMATESBASE2020, minus one. The U.S. population is the sum of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Method: we filtered CBP to South Carolina (state FIPS 45), joined county population by FIPS code and computed agencies per 10,000 residents, then ranked all 46 counties. The state total of 2,041 includes 13 agencies CBP assigns to South Carolina but not to a county. The U.S. rate sums the code across every county record. Size shares sum the published employment size class columns; cells marked N are excluded and shown as not allocated.

Limits: CBP excludes agents with no employees and counts locations, not agencies or licensed agents. Employment and payroll carry noise (G under 2 percent, H 2 to 5 percent, J 5 percent or more), and county cells under three establishments are not published. Vintage 2025 population estimates are now available; we used Vintage 2024 to stay closer to the 2023 business data.