Florence County area

Population and density of Florence County

The Census Bureau estimates that 138,504 people lived in Florence County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #490 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 137,067, the population has grown by 1,437 (+1%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 800.5 square miles of land, that is 173 people per square mile (67 per km²), placing Florence County #697 nationally for density and #14 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 3.7 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 Florence County

9 incorporated places lie at least partly in Florence County. Together they are home to 54,513 people (39.4%); the other 83,991 (60.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Florence city, with 41,231 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Florence city grew fastest since then (+3.1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Florence County is a central county of the Florence, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 201,392 residents on 1,361.1 square miles of land; Florence County accounts for 58.8% of the land and 68.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #236 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #236 by population.

ZIP codes

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

291142916129501295052950629530295412955429555295602958329591

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 Florence County

Florence County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than 7 of them. The largest neighbor is Williamsburg County (934.2 mi²) and the smallest is Dillon County (405.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Florence County forms a block of 5,352 mi² of land, of which it holds 15%.

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

Florence County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.3 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 38 areas the size of Florence County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.3 miles (45.5 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 Florence County?

Florence County has more land than 2,157 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 Florence County at #1,170 nationally by total area, 105 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Florence 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.