Description of South Carolina, US

South Carolina is a coastal state in the United States' Southeastern region. It is bordered by North Carolina to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia to the southwest across the Savannah River. According to the 2020 census, South Carolina ranks as the 23rd most populous and the 40th most extensive state in the United States. Its GDP in 2019 was $213.45 billion. 46 counties comprise South Carolina. Columbia will have a population of 137,300 in 2020, while Charleston will have a population of 150,277 in the same year. The Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson metropolitan area is the state's most populous, with an estimated population of 1,455,892 in 2020.

South Carolina was named in honor of King Charles I of England, who founded the first English colony. The Province of South Carolina was founded in 1712. South Carolina, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, became a royal colony in 1719. During the American Revolutionary War, South Carolina was the site of over 200 battles and skirmishes, making it the most active state among the American colonies. On May 23, 1788, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution. On December 20, 1860, it was the first slave state to vote in favor of secession from the Union. On July 9, 1868, after the American Civil War, it was readmitted to the United States. During the early to mid-20th century, the state began to experience economic growth as numerous textile mills and factories were constructed. The civil rights movement of the middle of the twentieth century contributed to the end of segregation and legal discrimination within the state. South Carolina's economic diversification accelerated during and in the decades that followed World War II. South Carolina's economy is based on industries such as aerospace, agribusiness, automotive manufacturing, and tourism at the beginning of the 21st century.

In South Carolina, the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwest corner of Upstate South Carolina are the three major geographic regions from east to west. South Carolina's climate is predominantly humid subtropical, with hot, humid summers and mild winters. The climate in the Upstate is subtropical highland. Along the eastern coastal plain of South Carolina are numerous salt marshes and estuaries. The southeastern Lowcountry of South Carolina contains portions of the Sea Islands, an Atlantic Ocean barrier island chain.

Geographical Description of South Carolina

Geologically, South Carolina can be divided into three distinct provinces. The Blue Ridge Mountain province dominates the northwest corner of the state, comprising approximately 2% of the state's land area; the highest point in South Carolina, Sassafras Mountain, rises to an elevation of 3,560 feet on a crest in this region (1,085 metres). The worn, undulating relief of the Piedmont province, whose elevation ranges from approximately 90 to 1,200 feet (300 to 365 metres), stretches from the mountains in the southeast to the midlands around Columbia, constituting nearly one-third of the state. At the edge of the Piedmont, the Sandhills traverse the state's center diagonally from northeast to southwest. The Coastal Plain province encompasses the state's southern and eastern thirds, and its elevation ranges from sea level to approximately 300 feet (90 metres). Near the center of the region, the terrain is gently undulating, but flattens out toward the coast. Its 187-mile (300-km) coastline consists of the Grand Strand, an unbroken beach extending from the North Carolina border southward for more than 100 miles (160 km) before giving way to the tidal and freshwater marshes of Georgia's Sea Islands. Two major geographical boundaries separate the provinces of North Carolina. Where rivers form significant rapids, the fall line separates the sedimentary rocks of the Coastal Plain from the metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont. A fault line known as the Brevard Zone separates the Piedmont from the Blue Ridge province.

Economy of South Carolina

South Carolina's GDP in 2019 was $249.9 billion, making it the 26th largest state in terms of GDP in the United States. Gross state product (GSP) in South Carolina was $97 billion in 1997 and $153 billion in 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Its per-capita real gross domestic product (GDP) in chained 2000 dollars was $26,772 in 1997 and $28,894 in 2007; this represented 85 percent of the $31,619 per-capita real GDP for the United States as a whole in 1997, and 76 percent of the $38,020 in 2007. According to one source, the 2012 state debt was $22.9 billion, or $7,800 per taxpayer.

Textile products, chemical products, paper products, machinery, automobiles, automobile products, and tourism are examples of industrial outputs. The state's primary agricultural products are tobacco, poultry, cotton, cattle, dairy products, soybeans, hay, rice, and swine. As of March 2012, South Carolina had 1,852,700 nonfarm jobs, 12 percent of which were in manufacturing, 11.5 percent in leisure and hospitality, 19 percent in trade, transportation, and utilities, and 11.8 percent in education and health services, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The service sector constitutes 83.7% of South Carolina's economy.

Numerous large corporations have relocated to South Carolina. In 2011, Boeing established a manufacturing facility in Charleston, South Carolina, which is one of two final assembly sites for the 787 Dreamliner. Numerous businesses in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, utilize staffing agencies to temporarily fill positions. Domtar, headquartered in Rock Hill, was formerly the only Fortune 500 company in South Carolina. On the list of the Fortune 1000 are SCANA, Sonoco Products, and ScanSource.

Foreign investment is also advantageous to South Carolina. There are 1,950 foreign-owned businesses employing nearly 135,000 people in South Carolina. In 2010, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) contributed $1.06 billion to the state's economy. BMW has had a production facility in Spartanburg County near Greer since 1994, and the Zapp Group has been operating in Summerville near Charleston since 1996.