Laurens County area

Population and density of Laurens County

The Census Bureau estimates that 71,848 people lived in Laurens County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #783 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #20 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 67,522, the population has grown by 4,326 (+6.4%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 712.9 square miles of land, that is 101 people per square mile (39 per km²), placing Laurens County #988 nationally for density and #21 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 6.4 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 Laurens County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Laurens County. Together they are home to 22,374 people (31.1%); the other 49,474 (68.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Laurens city, with 9,327 residents in the county. By land, Clinton city is the largest at 10.6 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Fountain Inn city grew fastest since then (+41.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Laurens County is an outlying county of the Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 1,014,101 residents on 2,709.6 square miles of land; Laurens County accounts for 26.3% of the land and 7.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #114 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #56 by population. It belongs to the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Laurens County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

29037291782932529332293352935129355293602937029384293882964429645296542968129692

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 Laurens County

Laurens County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Spartanburg County (808.4 mi²) and the smallest is Greenwood County (455.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Laurens County forms a block of 4,398 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.2%.

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

Laurens County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 42 areas the size of Laurens County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.7 miles (43 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 Laurens County?

Laurens County has more land than 1,941 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 Laurens County at #1,347 nationally by total area, 66 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 1.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Laurens 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.