Chester County area

Population and density of Chester County

The Census Bureau estimates that 33,001 people lived in Chester County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,410 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 32,298, the population has grown by 703 (+2.2%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 580.9 square miles of land, that is 57 people per square mile (22 per km²), placing Chester County #1,438 nationally for density and #30 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 11 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 Chester County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Chester County. Together they are home to 8,756 people (26.5%); the other 24,245 (73.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Chester city, with 5,324 residents in the county. By land, Great Falls town is the largest at 4.277 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Chester city grew fastest since then (+0.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Chester County is an outlying county of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 11 county equivalents have 2,938,830 residents on 5,597.4 square miles of land; Chester County accounts for 10.4% of the land and 1.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #39 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #21 by population. It belongs to the Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Chester County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2901429031290552970429706297122971429724297292973029742

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 Chester County

Chester County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Fairfield County (686.3 mi²) and the smallest is Union County (513.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Chester County forms a block of 3,010.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.3%.

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

Chester County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 52 areas the size of Chester County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.1 miles (38.8 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 Chester County?

Chester County has more land than 1,528 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 Chester County at #1,794 nationally by total area, 100 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 percentage points lower. 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 Chester 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.