Georgetown County, South Carolina

Georgetown County is a county in South Carolina, United States, on the Atlantic coast about 34 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach and 60 miles northeast of Charleston. It had a population of 63,404 at the 2020 census, an estimated 65,912 by 2025, and covers 1,034.83 square miles (2,680.2 km2) — 813.61 square miles of land and 221.22 square miles of water — centred near 33°25′N 79°18′W.

Georgetown is the county seat and the county’s only incorporated city; its postal code is 29440. The county holds 1 city, 2 incorporated towns and 8 unincorporated or census-designated communities, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 45043.

Towns & Villages in Georgetown County

Georgetown County has 11 named places on record: 1 city, 2 incorporated towns and 8 unincorporated or census-designated communities with no local government of their own. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers rural crossroads and historic communities with no formal boundary.

Two places on this list carry population figures that reach beyond Georgetown County. Garden City’s 10,235 residents are almost all in Horry County — only the developed beachfront at its southern tip crosses into Georgetown. Andrews runs the opposite way: the town sits mostly in Williamsburg County, with only its southern edge inside Georgetown, so its 2,575-person count is a shared total. Sandy Island, out in the Pee Dee River, has no road access at all; a small Gullah community there still reaches the mainland only by boat.

ZIP Codes

• 29440 — Georgetown (also serves DeBordieu Colony)
• 29442 — Georgetown (a second Georgetown ZIP)
• 29576 — Murrells Inlet (also serves the Georgetown County edge of Garden City)
• 29585 — Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beach
• 29510 — Andrews

Sandy Island, Plantersville, Choppee and Sampit have no ZIP code of their own; mail for the three mainland communities is delivered under the nearest incorporated town’s code, and Sandy Island’s few residents receive mail only by boat.

Geography

Georgetown County sits on South Carolina’s coastal plain, at the point where the Waccamaw, Pee Dee, Black and Sampit rivers converge into Winyah Bay before reaching the Atlantic. Of its 1,034.83 square miles, 813.61 are land and 221.22 are water, roughly 21 percent — high for the state, a result of the bay’s open estuary and the tidal marsh lining the coast. The Sampit River runs past Georgetown itself, where a large paper mill sits on its bank, and Winyah Bay makes the city South Carolina’s second-largest seaport, handling several hundred thousand tons of cargo a year.

Horry County lies to the northeast, Marion County to the north, Williamsburg County to the northwest, Berkeley County to the west, Charleston County to the southwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Horry County, Marion County, Williamsburg County, Berkeley County and Charleston County all border Georgetown directly.

Demographics

Georgetown County had a population of 63,404 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the county near 65,912 residents. Murrells Inlet and Litchfield Beach are the two largest communities fully inside the county, each topping 8,000 residents, with Georgetown city close behind at 8,403. Median household income runs $68,713 (Data USA, 2024), close to South Carolina’s statewide figure of $67,804 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 78 people per square mile of land, low for a coastal South Carolina county, reflecting the large share of marsh and protected land along the Waccamaw shoreline and Winyah Bay.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most residents of Georgetown County, about 3,912 workers, followed by retail trade at 3,423 and accommodation and food services at 2,569 — the last reflecting the county’s beach-tourism economy along Pawleys Island, Litchfield Beach and Murrells Inlet. A large kraft paper mill on the Sampit River in Georgetown, run by International Paper, is one of the county’s biggest single employers, alongside plastics manufacturer AGRU and retailers Food Lion and Walmart. The county’s 2022 gross domestic product was $3.3 billion. Georgetown’s historic Harborwalk waterfront hosts the county’s best-known annual gathering, the Wooden Boat Show, drawing wooden-boat builders and visitors from across the coast.

History

South Carolina organised the Georgetown District as one of seven judicial districts in 1769. The town of Georgetown itself is older still, laid out in 1729 by planter Elisha Screven on a four-by-eight block grid that still forms the city’s historic district today. Both the town and the district took their name from King George III. An 1785 law briefly split the district into four subordinate counties — Kingston, Liberty, Williamsburg and Winyah — which were abolished in 1798, and the whole district reorganised in 1800. Post-Civil War constitutional reform converted South Carolina’s districts into counties, and Georgetown District became Georgetown County in 1868.

Rice built the county’s early wealth. By 1840 the Georgetown District grew nearly half of the total rice crop harvested in the United States, using a variety of rice brought from West Africa and worked by enslaved labor on tidal plantations along the Waccamaw, Pee Dee and Black rivers. The industry collapsed after the Civil War ended slavery and made hand-harvested rice unprofitable, and the county’s economy shifted toward lumber and, later, the paper mill that still operates on the Sampit River.

Getting There

US 17 runs the length of the county along the coast, and US 521 and US 701 cross it further inland, alongside SC 41, SC 51, SC 261 and SC 513. No interstate highway reaches Georgetown County.

• Myrtle Beach — about 34 miles northeast
• Charleston — about 60 miles southwest

Myrtle Beach International Airport is the nearest major commercial airport. Amtrak’s Silver Meteor and Palmetto trains stop at the Kingstree station, in neighboring Williamsburg County.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Georgetown County located?
It sits on South Carolina’s Atlantic coast, between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, bordered by Horry, Marion, Williamsburg, Berkeley and Charleston counties.

What is the population of Georgetown County?
63,404 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 65,912.

How big is Georgetown County?
1,034.83 square miles (2,680.2 km2), of which 813.61 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Georgetown County?
Georgetown, laid out in 1729 and the county’s only incorporated city.

How many towns and cities are in Georgetown County?
Three incorporated places — Georgetown, Andrews (partly) and Pawleys Island — plus eight unincorporated and census-designated communities: Garden City (partly), Murrells Inlet, Litchfield Beach, DeBordieu Colony, Sandy Island, Plantersville, Choppee and Sampit.

What ZIP codes does Georgetown County use?
29440 and 29442 for Georgetown, 29576 for Murrells Inlet and Garden City, 29585 for Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beach, and 29510 for Andrews.

What is Georgetown County known for?
Its 19th-century rice plantations, Winyah Bay’s working seaport, and the beach communities of Pawleys Island and Murrells Inlet.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in South Carolina.