Abbeville County area

Population and density of Abbeville County

The Census Bureau estimates that 24,836 people lived in Abbeville County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,671 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #37 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 24,293, the population has grown by 543 (+2.2%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 491.2 square miles of land, that is 51 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Abbeville County #1,543 nationally for density and #35 in South Carolina. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the South Carolina median is 78. Put another way, there are about 13 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Abbeville County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Abbeville County. Together they are home to 8,496 people (34.2%); the other 16,340 (65.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Abbeville city, with 4,902 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Due West town grew fastest since then (+5.5%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Abbeville County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Abbeville County is an outlying county of the Greenwood, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 95,215 residents on 946.8 square miles of land; Abbeville County accounts for 51.9% of the land and 26.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #196 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #42 by population. It belongs to the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Abbeville County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

29620296272962829638296392964629649296532965429655296592969229819

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Abbeville County

Abbeville County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in Georgia. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Anderson County (713.9 mi²) and the smallest is Elbert County (351.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Abbeville County forms a block of 3,083.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.9%.

How big is Abbeville County compared with U.S. states?

Abbeville County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.1 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 61 areas the size of Abbeville County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.2 miles (35.7 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Abbeville County?

Abbeville County has more land than 1,102 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Abbeville County at #2,133 nationally by total area, 13 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.8 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Abbeville County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.