Horry County area

Population and density of Horry County

The Census Bureau estimates that 427,551 people lived in Horry County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #179 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 351,036, the population has grown by 76,515 (+21.8%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 1,133.1 square miles of land, that is 377 people per square mile (146 per km²), placing Horry County #432 nationally for density and #7 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 1.7 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 Horry County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Horry County. Together they are home to 102,362 people (23.9%); the other 325,189 (76.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Myrtle Beach city, with 40,937 residents in the county. The county seat, Conway city, has 30,627 residents. By land, Conway city is the largest at 28.2 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Conway city grew fastest since then (+22.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Horry County is a central county of the Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Horry County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 1,133.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #266 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #132 by population. It belongs to the Myrtle Beach-Conway, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Horry County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

29511295262952729544295452956629568295692957229575295762957729579295812958229588

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Horry County

Horry County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in North Carolina. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Columbus County (938.1 mi²) and the smallest is Dillon County (405.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Horry County forms a block of 4,628.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 24.5%.

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

Horry County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.7 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). South Carolina’s county land could hold about 27 areas the size of Horry County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 33.7 miles (54.2 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 Horry County?

Horry County has more land than 2,668 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 Horry County at #558 nationally by total area, 4 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 9.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 8.5 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 Horry 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.