Whitest cities in South Carolina research summary. We analyzed South Carolina’s most recent Census data to determine the whitest cities in South Carolina based on the percentage of White residents.
89.5% White · #1 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Charleston County, South Carolina
Mount Pleasant is a large suburban town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is the fourth largest municipality and largest town in South Carolina, and for several years was one of the state’s fastest-growing areas, doubling in population between 1990 and 2000. The population was 67,843 at the 2010 census, and the estimated population in 2014 was 77,796. Mount Pleasant is the third largest city in the Charleston- North Charleston- Summerville metropolitan area, behind Charleston and North Charleston.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
89.1% White · #2 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Horry County, South Carolina
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
78.8% White · #3 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Richland County, South Carolina
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
77.9% White · #4 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Pickens County, South Carolina
Easley is a city in Pickens County in the State of South Carolina. It is a principal city of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. Most of the city lies in Pickens County, with only a very small portion of the city in Anderson County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
76.9% White · #5 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Pickens County, South Carolina
Clemson is a city in Pickens and Anderson counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Clemson is home to Clemson University; in 2015, the Princeton Review cited the town of Clemson as ranking #1 in the United States for “town-and-gown” relations with its resident university. The population of the city was 13,905 at the 2010 census.
Clemson is part of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area. Most of the city is in Pickens County, which is part of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. A small portion is in Anderson County, which is part of the Anderson Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
74.8% White · #6 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Beaufort County, South Carolina
Bluffton is a Lowcountry town in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is primarily located around U.S. Route 278, between Hilton Head Island and Interstate 95. The town’s original one square mile area, now known as Old Town, is situated on a bluff along the May River. The population was counted by the 2010 census at 12,893. Bluffton is the fastest growing municipality in South Carolina with a population over 2,500, growing 882.7% between the 2000 and 2010 census. Bluffton is the fifth largest municipality in South Carolina by land area. The town is a primary city within the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bluffton is known for its eclectic Old Town district and natural views of the May River. It has been called “the last true coastal village of the South.”
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
73.8% White · #7 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Beaufort County, South Carolina
Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is 20 miles northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and 95 miles southwest of Charleston. The island is named after Captain William Hilton, who in 1663 identified a headland near the entrance to Port Royal Sound, which he named “Hilton’s Head” after himself. The island features 12 miles of beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean and is a popular vacation destination. In 2004, an estimated 2.25 million visitors pumped more than $1.5 billion into the local economy. The year-round population was 37,099 at the 2010 census, although during the peak of summer vacation season the population can swell to 150,000. Over the past decade, the island’s population growth rate was 32%. Hilton Head Island is a primary city within the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 207,413 in 2015.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
73.3% White · #8 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Lexington County, South Carolina
Lexington is the largest town in and the county seat of Lexington County, South Carolina, United States. Lexington is a suburb of the state’s capital and second-largest city, Columbia. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 2016 population is 24,905, and it is the second-largest municipality in the Columbia, South Carolina metropolitan area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
72.8% White · #9 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Oconee County, South Carolina
Seneca is a city in Oconee County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 8,102 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Seneca Micropolitan Statistical Area, an which includes all of Oconee County and which is further included in the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
71.7% White · #10 whitest in South Carolina
Located in
Charleston County, South Carolina
Charleston is the oldest and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina’s coastline and is located on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Charleston had an estimated population of 134,385 in 2016. The estimated population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 761,155 residents in 2016, the third-largest in the state and the 78th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is South Carolina’s statewide median.
On the map
Where South Carolina’s White population is concentrated
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the whitest places in South Carolina for 2026
To rank the whitest places in South Carolina, we used Saturday Night Science to look at Census demographic data.
We had to look at the number of white people living in each city in South Carolina on a per capita basis. In other words, the percentage of white people living in each city in South Carolina.
We looked at table B03002: Hispanic OR LATINO ORIGIN BY RACE. Here are the category names as defined by the Census:
- Hispanic or Latino
- White alone*
- Black or African American alone*
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone*
- Asian alone*
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone*
- Some other race alone*
- Two or more races*
Our particular column of interest here was the number of people who identified as White alone.
We limited our analysis to places with a population greater than 5,000 people. That left us with 56 cities.
We then calculated the percentage of residents that are White. The percentages ranked from 89.5% to 20.4%.
Finally, we ranked each city based on the percentage of the White population, with a higher percentage being more White. Mount Pleasant took the distinction of being the most White, while Orangeburg was the least White city.
We updated this article for 2026. This report represents our eleventh time ranking the whitest cities in South Carolina.
The full plate
Cities In South Carolina By White Population
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | White Population | % White |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Pleasant | 93,993 | 84,088 | 89.5% |
| 2 | North Myrtle Beach | 19,855 | 17,697 | 89.1% |
| 3 | Forest Acres | 10,530 | 8,297 | 78.8% |
| 4 | Easley | 24,841 | 19,344 | 77.9% |
| 5 | Clemson | 18,072 | 13,892 | 76.9% |
| 6 | Bluffton | 33,157 | 24,791 | 74.8% |
| 7 | Hilton Head Island | 37,911 | 27,995 | 73.8% |
| 8 | Lexington | 24,585 | 18,025 | 73.3% |
| 9 | Seneca | 8,993 | 6,551 | 72.8% |
| 10 | Charleston | 154,338 | 110,737 | 71.7% |
| 11 | Fort Mill | 30,775 | 21,749 | 70.7% |
| 12 | North Augusta | 25,653 | 17,945 | 70.0% |
| 13 | Hanahan | 21,452 | 14,982 | 69.8% |
| 14 | Tega Cay | 13,615 | 9,137 | 67.1% |
| 15 | Greenville | 72,935 | 48,318 | 66.2% |
| 16 | Myrtle Beach | 38,371 | 25,170 | 65.6% |
| 17 | Simpsonville | 26,144 | 16,692 | 63.8% |
| 18 | Summerville | 51,654 | 32,939 | 63.8% |
| 19 | West Columbia | 17,963 | 11,403 | 63.5% |
| 20 | Beaufort | 13,747 | 8,600 | 62.6% |
| 21 | Fountain Inn | 12,020 | 7,474 | 62.2% |
| 22 | Conway | 27,263 | 16,911 | 62.0% |
| 23 | Anderson | 30,051 | 18,003 | 59.9% |
| 24 | Camden | 8,267 | 4,913 | 59.4% |
| 25 | Mauldin | 27,055 | 16,034 | 59.3% |
| 26 | Aiken | 32,521 | 19,241 | 59.2% |
| 27 | Irmo | 11,813 | 6,868 | 58.1% |
| 28 | Greer | 41,536 | 24,029 | 57.9% |
| 29 | Goose Creek | 48,078 | 27,293 | 56.8% |
| 30 | Port Royal | 15,579 | 8,842 | 56.8% |
| 31 | Cayce | 13,741 | 7,759 | 56.5% |
| 32 | Clinton | 7,676 | 4,080 | 53.2% |
| 33 | Laurens | 9,336 | 4,735 | 50.7% |
| 34 | Union | 8,079 | 4,096 | 50.7% |
| 35 | Moncks Corner | 15,485 | 7,848 | 50.7% |
| 36 | York | 8,969 | 4,541 | 50.6% |
| 37 | Rock Hill | 75,259 | 37,045 | 49.2% |
| 38 | Spartanburg | 38,910 | 18,711 | 48.1% |
| 39 | Hartsville | 7,419 | 3,557 | 47.9% |
| 40 | Georgetown | 8,565 | 4,071 | 47.5% |
| 41 | Columbia | 139,643 | 63,825 | 45.7% |
| 42 | Walterboro | 5,480 | 2,273 | 41.5% |
| 43 | Gaffney | 12,596 | 5,194 | 41.2% |
| 44 | Florence | 40,408 | 16,359 | 40.5% |
| 45 | Lancaster | 8,921 | 3,592 | 40.3% |
| 46 | Sumter | 43,053 | 16,546 | 38.4% |
| 47 | North Charleston | 119,913 | 45,521 | 38.0% |
| 48 | Greenwood | 22,536 | 8,241 | 36.6% |
| 49 | Dillon | 6,354 | 2,313 | 36.4% |
| 50 | Newberry | 10,790 | 3,719 | 34.5% |
| 51 | Darlington | 6,120 | 1,991 | 32.5% |
| 52 | Chester | 5,218 | 1,649 | 31.6% |
| 53 | Marion | 6,206 | 1,873 | 30.2% |
| 54 | Bennettsville | 7,751 | 2,191 | 28.3% |
| 55 | Lake City | 5,988 | 1,354 | 22.6% |
| 56 | Orangeburg | 13,253 | 2,701 | 20.4% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 56 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
Summary: White Populations Across South Carolina
We measured the locations with the highest percentage of white people in South Carolina. According to the most recent data, this list provides accurate information on the whitest places in South Carolina.
The most White cities in South Carolina are Mount Pleasant, North Myrtle Beach, Forest Acres, Easley, Clemson, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, Lexington, Seneca, and Charleston.
