Berkeley County area

Population and density of Berkeley County

The Census Bureau estimates that 274,666 people lived in Berkeley County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #272 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 229,779, the population has grown by 44,887 (+19.5%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 1,103.6 square miles of land, that is 249 people per square mile (96 per km²), placing Berkeley County #576 nationally for density and #12 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 2.6 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 Berkeley County

9 incorporated places lie at least partly in Berkeley County. Together they are home to 119,656 people (43.6%); the other 155,010 (56.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Goose Creek city, with 52,010 residents in the county. The county seat, Moncks Corner town, has 20,612 residents. By land, Charleston city is the largest at 115.5 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Moncks Corner town grew fastest since then (+54.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Berkeley County is a central county of the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 889,263 residents on 2,590.3 square miles of land; Berkeley County accounts for 42.6% of the land and 30.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #128 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #67 by population.

ZIP codes

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

290592940629410294312943429436294452945029453294562946129468294692947229479294832948629492

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 Berkeley County

Berkeley County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Orangeburg County (1,106.4 mi²) and the smallest is Dorchester County (568.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Berkeley County forms a block of 6,051.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.2%.

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

Berkeley County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.8 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). South Carolina’s county land could hold about 27 areas the size of Berkeley County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 33.2 miles (53.5 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 Berkeley County?

Berkeley County has more land than 2,649 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 Berkeley County at #572 nationally by total area, 1 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 10.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 9.4 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 Berkeley 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.