Fort Mill and Rock Hill saw population surge before. But neither hit these new levels
More people than ever live on this region’s South Carolina side of I-77, where communities continue their push toward population milestones.
The U.S. Census Bureau released its latest municipal population estimates Thursday. The mid-2019 estimates cover cities and towns across the nation. What they show are some of the fastest-growing areas of a high-growth region, northern York and Lancaster counties.
Here are the key takeaways:
Fort Mill surges, Rock Hill climbs
Fort Mill has more than doubled its population since the last official census in 2010. The town now has an estimated 22,284 people.
If just the 11,473 new residents were their own town, it would rank in the top 40 largest municipalities in all of South Carolina. That Fort Mill growth the past nine years is about 150 more people than currently live in Tega Cay.
Still, Fort Mill has less than a third the residents of its neighbor Rock Hill. Rock Hill growth is steady, if not as dramatic, as the town across the Catawba River. Rock Hill has an estimated 75,048 people. The 8,304 more residents in Rock Hill from 2010 to 2019 are more than the population of York.
Rock Hill is now a top 500 municipality nationwide (No. 5 in the state) in total population, at No. 476. Fort Mill is next on the list at No. 1,690.
SC population ranks
Rank every city and town in South Carolina by population in 2010, then again in 2019. Five tri-county municipalities — Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Kershaw, Van Wyck, Heath Springs — jumped up 10 or more spots in that time.
This area has five cities and towns in the top 50 statewide. It also has three — Smyrna, Lowrys, Richburg — in the bottom 50. Smyrna, in a decade-long toggle with Jenkinsville for the smallest municipality in South Carolina, has an estimated 53 residents. Van Wyck, which didn’t exist as a town until 2017, is larger than eight other tri-county municipalites with its more than 1,000 residents.
Milestones
Several communities reached population milestones, while others flirt with new plateaus. Projections put Rock Hill at more than 75,000 and Fort Mill at more than 20,000 residents for the first time. Heath Springs passed 1,000 residents for the first time. Van Wyck, the newest municipality in the tri-county, continues to grow after surpassing 1,000 residents in the 2018 projection.
Lancaster is nearest to the 10,000 mark, needing fewer than 100 more residents.
Charlotte and beyond
Nationwide, 4% of all cities account for nearly 61% of the total population in municipalities. About 76% of the more than 19,000 municipalities nationwide have 5,000 or fewer people. Southern small towns since 2010 have grown by 6.7%. Mid-sized Southern cities also saw growth.
Charlotte ranks No. 8 in the country, one spot behind New York City, for most total new residents since 2010. More than 150,000 new Charlotteans are here now compared to a decade ago. In 2019 Charlotte cracked the top 15 most populous cities in the country, at No. 15. The city has a projected 885,708 residents.
Lake Wylie and Indian Land
As high as growth in Fort Mill, Tega Cay and elsewhere is, there are huge pockets of people unaccounted for in municipal projections. The Baxter area of Fort Mill and Lake Wylie are in unincorporated York County. Indian Land is in unincorporated Lancaster County.
The most recent population projection for Lake Wylie comes from 2018, when the census bureau estimates it had 12,569 people. That number would rank Lake Wylie No. 35 among state municipalities in the 2019 projections, if it were a town or city. Only Rock Hill and Fort Mill have higher figures in the tri-county.
There are even more people in Indian Land. The 29707 zip code had an estimated 28,886 people in 2018. That number would put Indian Land at No. 16 in the latest municipal rankings, behind only Rock Hill in the tri-county.
Lake Wylie and Indian Land populations are counted in their respective county estimates for 2019. In March, census bureau data showed more than 411,000 tri-county residents. Both York and Lancaster rank in the top 100 fastest-growing counties nationwide from 2018 to 2019, and in the top 50 since 2010.
Scaled population growth
The 106% population increase in Fort Mill since 2010 isn’t just tops in the area, but in most any area. The largest increase of any city in the country with 50,000 or more residents is Frisco, Texas at 71%.
Fort Mill ranks No. 59 in percentage growth among the 19,424 of a possible 19,502 municipalities nationwide that had a 2010 Census population listed.
Among towns and cities with at least 10,000 residents at the 2010 Census, Fort Mill is No. 4.
At 49% growth since 2010, Tega Cay is next at No. 267 overall in the country.
Yet larger tri-county areas aren’t the only ones growing their communities. Van Wyck (31% growth since 2010), Heath Springs (29%), Kershaw (29%), Clover (28%), Sharon (27%), Hickory Grove (25%), McConnells (24%) and Smyrna (18%) all added to their numbers.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 7:26 AM with the headline "Fort Mill and Rock Hill saw population surge before. But neither hit these new levels."
