Darlington County area

Population and density of Darlington County

The Census Bureau estimates that 62,888 people lived in Darlington County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #879 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #23 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 62,905, the population has declined by 17 (−0%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 560.6 square miles of land, that is 112 people per square mile (43 per km²), placing Darlington County #920 nationally for density and #20 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 5.7 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 Darlington County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Darlington County. Together they are home to 14,739 people (23.4%); the other 48,149 (76.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Hartsville city, with 7,374 residents in the county. The county seat, Darlington city, has 6,075 residents. By land, Florence city is the largest at 24.9 mi² across all its counties.

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

Metropolitan area

Darlington County is an outlying county of the Florence, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 201,392 residents on 1,361.1 square miles of land; Darlington County accounts for 41.2% of the land and 31.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #236 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #236 by population.

ZIP codes

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

29069290792910129161295012950629532295402955029593

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 Darlington County

Darlington County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Florence County (800.5 mi²) and the smallest is Lee County (410.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Darlington County forms a block of 3,776.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.8%.

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

Darlington 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 54 areas the size of Darlington County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.7 miles (38.1 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 Darlington County?

Darlington County has more land than 1,375 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 Darlington County at #1,949 nationally by total area, 102 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 Darlington 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.