Richland County area

Population and density of Richland County

The Census Bureau estimates that 434,956 people lived in Richland County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #173 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 46 in South Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 416,131, the population has grown by 18,825 (+4.5%), compared with +8.8% for South Carolina as a whole.

With 757.3 square miles of land, that is 574 people per square mile (222 per km²), placing Richland County #307 nationally for density and #2 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 1.1 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 Richland County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Richland County. Together they are home to 173,899 people (40%); the other 261,057 (60%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Columbia city, with 146,401 residents in the county (the city extends into 2 other counties). Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Blythewood town grew fastest since then (+52.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Richland 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; Richland County accounts for 20.5% of the land and 49.4% 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

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

29016290362904429045290522906129063290752907829130291772918029201292032920429205292062920729208292092921029212292232922529229

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 Richland County

Richland County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Kershaw County (726.6 mi²) and the smallest is Calhoun County (381.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Richland County forms a block of 4,545.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.7%.

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

Richland County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. South Carolina’s county land could hold about 40 areas the size of Richland County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.5 miles (44.3 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 Richland County?

Richland County has more land than 2,061 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 Richland County at #1,237 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 Richland 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.