By Bart, January 10, 2010 at 12:44:00 :: United States of America
South Carolina is a southern U.S. state that borders
Georgia to the south and
North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was originally named in honor of King Charles I, as Carolus is Latin for Charles. South Carolina was the first state to vote to secede from the Union and was a founding state of the Confederate States of America. According to an estimate by the United States Census Bureau, the state's population in 2008 was 4,479,800 and ranked 24th among the U.S. states. South Carolina contains 46 counties and its capital is Columbia.
South Carolina's cities are actually much larger than their city population counts suggest. South Carolina law makes it difficult for municipalities to annex unincorporated areas into the city limits, so city proper populations look smaller than the actually size of the area. For example, Spartanburg and Myrtle Beach each have municipal populations less than 50,000 persons, but their metro areas (MSA's) are over 200,000. Anderson's municipal population is smaller than Sumter's, but the Anderson area is actually much larger. The Sumter area population is under 100,000, but Anderson's is over 120,000, while Anderson County's population is nearing 200,000.
Columbia,
Charleston, and
Greenville all area have urbanized area populations between 350,000-500,000, while their metro area (MSA) populations are all over 600,000. The Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson consolidated statistical area population consists of approximately 1.2 million people.
Fun facts about South Carolina:
- The swamps of South Carolina are good for growing rice. South Carolina is known as the Rice State and the Swamp State.
- The Carolina colony was named for France's King Charles IX and England's Kings Charles I and Charles II.
- On April 12, 1861, the Confederate attack on Charleston's Fort Sumter set off the American Civil War.
- The barrier islands of South Carolina and Georgia are famous for Gullah language and culture, a mixture of various West African and English influences.
- The Chitlin' Strut festival is held every year in Salley, South Carolina—attendees take part in a feast of chitlins, or boiled hog intestines.
- South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond served in the U.S. Senate for a record 46 years.
- South Carolina is the only gold-producing state east of the Mississippi River.
- Tobacco is still South Carolina's premier crop—the state produces 50,000 metric tons of it each year.
- South Carolina is sometimes referred to as the Iodine State because of the large amounts of the element found there. In fact, the nickname once graced South Carolina's license plates.
- South Carolina's license plates bear the phrase "Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places."
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