South Carolina among nation's fastest growing

By Ron Barnett, USA TODAY
Posted 3m ago |

South Carolina's population grew 15.3% in the past decade to rank among the nation's top 10 fastest growing states, data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show.

The surge was led by a 148% increase in the Hispanic population, which accounted for 23% of the state's growth. Hispanics make up 5.1% of the total, up from 2.4% in the 2000 Census.

The increase of 613,352 people to a population of 4,625,364 is likely to give the state an additional seat in Congress.

The state's non-Hispanic white population grew nearly 11.7% and the non-Hispanic black population grew 8.6%. Blacks remained the state's largest minority population at 28%. The Asian population surged 64% and is 1.3% of the state total.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Local county, city data
CENSUS NUMBERS: Interactive map shows your state, county, locality

Greenville County, on the Interstate 85 corridor between Atlanta and Charlotte, grew 18.9%, adding 71,609 people. The largest percentage growth came in Dorchester County, just outside the Charleston area, which grew nearly 42%. York County, in the suburbs of Charlotte, and Horry County, home of the popular vacation and retirement area of Myrtle Beach, each grew about 37%.

Some of the poorest, rural counties, including Williamsburg, Hampton and Laurens lost population.

"The history of those counties is largely agricultural and low-skilled manufacturing," said Curtis Simon, an associate professor of economics at Clemson University. "But in an era of globalization, those people are going to have a hard time competing."

Better job training in those areas is needed to improve the quality of life, he said.

The influx of Hispanics and the migration of workers and retirees from the Rust Belt and other parts of the country have put four Southern states — South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida — among the top 10 fastest-growing during the decade, said Jerry Mitchell, a cultural geographer at the University of South Carolina. Nevada is the nation's fastest-growing state.

Confounding the numbers is the time frame of the Census, taken in the middle of the recession, which raises questions on how much change can be attributed to the national economic downturn, Mitchell said.

The Hispanic population remains relatively small, but its impact is significant, he said.

"It's still just 5% of the population, but that's more than the population of the political city of Columbia," he said. "Comparatively that's big."

Barnett reports for The Greenville (S.C.) News

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