Oconee County area

Population and density of Oconee County

The Census Bureau estimates that 83,775 people lived in Oconee County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #709 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #17 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 78,612, the population has grown by 5,163 (+6.6%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 626.6 square miles of land, that is 134 people per square mile (52 per km²), placing Oconee County #828 nationally for density and #19 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 4.8 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 Oconee County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Oconee County. Together they are home to 16,772 people (20%); the other 67,003 (80%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Seneca city, with 9,424 residents in the county. The county seat, Walhalla city, has 4,320 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Seneca city grew fastest since then (+6.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Oconee County is a central county of the Seneca, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Oconee County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 626.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #340 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #63 by population. It belongs to the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Oconee County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

29634296432965829664296652967229676296782968629689296912969329696

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 Oconee County

Oconee County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents, including 7 in Georgia and North Carolina. It has more land than 8 of them. The largest neighbor is Anderson County (713.9 mi²) and the smallest is Stephens County (178.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Oconee County forms a block of 4,026.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.6%.

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

Oconee County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.7 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 48 areas the size of Oconee County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25 miles (40.3 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 Oconee County?

Oconee County has more land than 1,686 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 Oconee County at #1,511 nationally by total area, 25 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 5.8 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 Oconee 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.