Orangeburg County area

Population and density of Orangeburg County

The Census Bureau estimates that 83,177 people lived in Orangeburg County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #714 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 84,227, the population has declined by 1,050 (−1.2%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 1,106.4 square miles of land, that is 75 people per square mile (29 per km²), placing Orangeburg County #1,208 nationally for density and #24 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 8.5 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 Orangeburg County

17 incorporated places lie at least partly in Orangeburg County. Together they are home to 20,517 people (24.7%); the other 62,660 (75.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Orangeburg city, with 13,383 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Orangeburg city grew fastest since then (+1.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Orangeburg County is a central county of the Orangeburg, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Orangeburg County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 1,106.4 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #154 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #64 by population. It belongs to the Columbia-Sumter-Orangeburg, SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

24 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Orangeburg County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

290182903029038290392904729048290592910729112291132911529117291182913329135291372914229146291602916329432294362947129477

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 Orangeburg County

Orangeburg County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Berkeley County (1,103.6 mi²) and the smallest is Calhoun County (381.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Orangeburg County forms a block of 7,534.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.7%.

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

Orangeburg 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 1.8 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). South Carolina’s county land could hold about 27 areas the size of Orangeburg County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 33.3 miles (53.5 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 Orangeburg County?

Orangeburg County has more land than 2,651 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 Orangeburg County at #647 nationally by total area, 76 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 1.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Orangeburg 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.