Greenwood County area

Population and density of Greenwood County

The Census Bureau estimates that 70,379 people lived in Greenwood County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #796 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #21 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 69,350, the population has grown by 1,029 (+1.5%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 455.6 square miles of land, that is 154 people per square mile (60 per km²), placing Greenwood County #763 nationally for density and #17 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 4.1 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 Greenwood County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Greenwood County. Together they are home to 26,815 people (38.1%); the other 43,564 (61.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Greenwood city, with 22,745 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Ware Shoals town grew fastest since then (+1.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Greenwood County is a central county of the Greenwood, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 95,215 residents on 946.8 square miles of land; Greenwood County accounts for 48.1% of the land and 73.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #196 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #42 by population. It belongs to the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Greenwood County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

291382963829646296492965329666296922981929848

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 Greenwood County

Greenwood County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Laurens County (712.9 mi²) and the smallest is McCormick County (358.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Greenwood County forms a block of 3,602.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.6%.

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

Greenwood County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.3 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 66 areas the size of Greenwood County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.3 miles (34.4 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 Greenwood County?

Greenwood County has more land than 973 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 Greenwood County at #2,308 nationally by total area, 59 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 1.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Greenwood 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.