Lexington County area

Population and density of Lexington County

The Census Bureau estimates that 317,588 people lived in Lexington County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #236 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #6 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 293,919, the population has grown by 23,669 (+8.1%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 698.5 square miles of land, that is 455 people per square mile (176 per km²), placing Lexington County #370 nationally for density and #5 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 1.4 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 Lexington County

15 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lexington County. Together they are home to 80,842 people (25.5%); the other 236,746 (74.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lexington town, with 25,729 residents in the county. By land, Columbia city is the largest at 139.8 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Lexington town grew fastest since then (+8.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Lexington County is a central county of the Columbia, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 879,918 residents on 3,703.2 square miles of land; Lexington County accounts for 18.9% of the land and 36.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #79 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #72 by population. It belongs to the Columbia-Sumter-Orangeburg, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lexington County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

290062903329036290532905429063290702907229073290752911229123291602916929170291722921029212

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 Lexington County

Lexington County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Orangeburg County (1,106.4 mi²) and the smallest is Calhoun County (381.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lexington County forms a block of 5,097.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.7%.

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

Lexington 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 43 areas the size of Lexington County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.4 miles (42.5 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 Lexington County?

Lexington County has more land than 1,895 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 Lexington County at #1,268 nationally by total area, 59 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 7.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 6.6 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 Lexington 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.