Professional services firms in South Carolina by type and county

South Carolina has 12,611 professional, scientific and technical services establishments with paid employees, based on the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns for 2023. They employ 114,785 people and paid $9.7 billion in annual payroll. This sector (NAICS 54) covers firms that sell expertise: lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects, designers, software and IT firms, consultants, marketing and advertising agencies, and a few others such as veterinary offices and photographers.

Relative to population, South Carolina has fewer of these firms than the country as a whole: 23.0 per 10,000 residents against 29.1 nationally. Most are small. About 84.8% of South Carolina's professional services locations have fewer than 10 employees, close to the U.S. share of 83.8%.

Law offices are the largest group, with 2,757 locations, or 21.9% of the sector. That is a larger share than nationally (18.2%), and South Carolina's rate of law offices per resident (5.03 per 10,000) is close to the U.S. rate (5.30). Management, scientific and technical consulting is second with 2,328 locations, followed by accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll firms (1,801) and architecture and engineering firms (1,725).

The biggest gaps against the national rate are in computer systems design (2.38 per 10,000 residents in South Carolina against 4.26 nationally), consulting (4.25 against 6.62) and scientific research (0.27 against 0.63). Architecture and engineering is close to the national rate and employs more people than any other professional services type in the state, 25,689.

At the six-digit level, South Carolina has 179 advertising agency locations, 168 graphic design firms and 451 marketing consulting firms, according to County Business Patterns 2023. Together that is fewer than 800 employer locations offering marketing and design services to the whole state. Per resident, South Carolina has 0.33 advertising agencies per 10,000 people against 0.43 nationally, and 0.82 marketing consulting firms against 1.51.

IT and software firms follow the same pattern. The state has 552 custom computer programming firms and 477 computer systems design firms, each at roughly half the national rate per resident. These counts exclude freelancers and solo consultants without employees, who make up a large part of marketing and IT work.

Charleston and Greenville counties lead, with 2,285 and 2,092 professional services locations. Richland County, home to state government and the main courts in Columbia, is third with 1,258. The eight largest counties by firm count hold 72.7% of the state's professional services locations.

Relative to population, Charleston stands far ahead at 53.0 firms per 10,000 residents, more than twice the state rate. Greenville (36.7) and Beaufort (35.8) follow. Some fast-growing suburban counties have fewer firms than their population would suggest: Berkeley County has 17.0 per 10,000 and Spartanburg 14.9, so many residents and businesses there likely use firms based in Charleston or Greenville.

• Law offices per 10,000 residents are highest in Charleston (11.9), Hampton (9.9), Richland (9.8), Beaufort and Georgetown (8.3 each).
• Horry County has nearly as many accounting and tax firms (164) as Richland (163), with a smaller share of law and engineering firms.
• York County has 108 computer services firms, fourth in the state, reflecting its ties to the Charlotte market.

For a firm in South Carolina, the data shows two different markets. In Charleston, Greenville and Columbia, clients have many choices, and firms compete on specialization, reputation and how easy they are to work with. Outside those counties, many residents have only a handful of local firms, and some types, such as IT services or marketing agencies, may have none with employees.

That has practical effects. An accounting firm in Lexington County competes with 114 others nearby and wins by being the obvious choice for a niche, such as restaurants or medical practices. An engineering or IT firm in a smaller county may be the only local option and can serve clients across several counties if prospects can find it and book a first call without friction.

Monvell's Consulting team helps professional services firms define where they compete and how, and our Marketing team builds the content and search presence that makes a firm findable in the counties it serves.

• Count competitors in your own NAICS code and county, not the whole sector.
• Check firms per 10,000 residents in neighboring counties you could serve remotely.
• If you sit in a crowded county, pick a client type or service where you can be the clear choice.
• Make the first step easy for clients who are not nearby: online scheduling, video consultations and secure intake forms.

Datasets: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023 county file for all U.S. counties (released June 2025), and Census Population Estimates Vintage 2024 county and state totals.

Definitions: the professional, scientific and technical services sector is NAICS 54, which has nine four-digit industry groups, 5411 through 5419, as defined in the 2022 NAICS. Six-digit rows use the codes shown in the tables.

Method: we summed establishments, mid-March employment and annual payroll across South Carolina's 46 counties plus the Census statewide category for state totals, and across all U.S. county records for national comparisons. Rates use July 1, 2024 population. Payroll per employee is annual payroll divided by mid-March employment. County tables exclude the 154 professional services establishments the Census assigns to South Carolina statewide rather than a county.

Limits: CBP counts only employer establishments, so solo lawyers, accountants, consultants and freelancers without staff are excluded. The Census does not publish a cell with fewer than three establishments, so four- and six-digit figures for small counties are floors and the nine types sum to slightly less than the sector total. Employment and payroll include confidentiality noise. Business data are for 2023 and population for 2024.