Cherokee County area

Population and density of Cherokee County

The Census Bureau estimates that 58,275 people lived in Cherokee County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #925 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #24 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 56,225, the population has grown by 2,050 (+3.6%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 393 square miles of land, that is 148 people per square mile (57 per km²), placing Cherokee County #779 nationally for density and #18 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 4.3 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 Cherokee County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Cherokee County. Together they are home to 14,565 people (25%); the other 43,710 (75%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Gaffney city, with 12,583 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Blacksburg town grew fastest since then (+4.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Cherokee County is a central county of the Gaffney, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Cherokee County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 393 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #496 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #174 by population. It belongs to the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Cherokee County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2930729323293302934029341293722970229743

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 Cherokee County

Cherokee County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in North Carolina. Each of them has more land than Cherokee County. The largest neighbor is Spartanburg County (808.4 mi²) and the smallest is Cleveland County (464.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cherokee County forms a block of 3,425.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.5%.

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

Cherokee County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.6 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 77 areas the size of Cherokee County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.8 miles (31.9 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 Cherokee County?

Cherokee County has more land than 661 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 Cherokee County at #2,613 nationally by total area, 52 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 1.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Cherokee 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.