Pickens County area

Population and density of Pickens County

The Census Bureau estimates that 139,198 people lived in Pickens County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #489 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 131,415, the population has grown by 7,783 (+5.9%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 497 square miles of land, that is 280 people per square mile (108 per km²), placing Pickens County #534 nationally for density and #11 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 2.3 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 Pickens County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Pickens County. Together they are home to 59,534 people (42.8%); the other 79,664 (57.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Easley city, with 27,275 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Pickens city, has 3,188 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Easley city grew fastest since then (+18.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Pickens County is a central 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; Pickens County accounts for 18.3% of the land and 13.7% 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

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Pickens County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

296112963029631296342963529640296422965729661296672967029671296782968229685

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 Pickens County

Pickens County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in North Carolina. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Greenville County (785.9 mi²) and the smallest is Transylvania County (378.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Pickens County forms a block of 3,001.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.6%.

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

Pickens County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.1 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 60 areas the size of Pickens County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.3 miles (35.9 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 Pickens County?

Pickens County has more land than 1,126 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 Pickens County at #2,127 nationally by total area, 31 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 3.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.9 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 Pickens 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.