Welcome to Charleston ...

The city of Charleston is primarily located in Charleston County<1> and is the County Seat for Charleston County. A portion of Charleston extends into Berkeley County.

Charleston was established in 1670.

When the people of Charleston refer to themselves (known as a demonym), they frequently use Charlestonian<2>

From the  Census Estimates for 2019, Charleston has a population of 137,973 people<3> (see below for details).

The community of Charleston is near sea level<4>.

Time Zone: Charleston lies in the Eastern Time Zone (EST/EDT) and observes daylight saving time

The telephone area code for Charleston: (843)

The ZIP codes for Charleston: 29401-29407, 29409, 29410, 29412-29420, 29422-29425, 29492<5>

Websites for Charleston ...

Official Website:   www.charleston-sc.gov/

Junior League:   www.jlcharleston.org/

Population Details ...

Taken from the 2019 Census Estimates, Charleston had an population of 137,973 people. This is an increase of 14.9% since the 2010 Census (or an increase of 42.76% since the 2000 Census).

At the time of the 2010 Census, Charleston had a population of 120,083 people (which is 34.29% of the total population of Charleston County). This makes Charleston the county's most populous community.

The population of Charleston represents 2.6% of the population of South Carolina (which has 4,625,364 people), making it the state's 2nd most populous community.

With a 2010 count of 120,083 people, the population of Charleston increased 24.25% from the 2000 Census (which had a count of 96,650 people).

More information can be found on the Census Page for Charleston.

Communities Also Named Charleston ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 44 communities that are also named Charleston - they are located in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas (3), Kentucky (2), Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri (2), Nebraska, Nevada (2), New Brunswick, New Jersey, New York (2), Newfoundland and Labrador, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio (4), Oklahoma, Ontario (3), Oregon, Pennsylvania (2), Tennessee (2), Texas (2), Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Charleston.

Communities near Charleston ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Charleston.

• North Charleston
  (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Charleston
  • North Charleston is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 118,752 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for North Charleston <6>
• Mount Pleasant
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
  • Mount Pleasant is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 92,799 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mount Pleasant <6>
• Goose Creek
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goose Creek
  • Goose Creek is located in Berkeley County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 44,972 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Goose Creek <6>
• Hanahan
  (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hanahan
  • Hanahan is located in Berkeley County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 28,280 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hanahan <6>
• Hollywood
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hollywood
  • Hollywood is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,268 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hollywood <6>
• Isle-of-Palms
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isle-of-Palms
  • Isle-of-Palms is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,371 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Isle-of-Palms <6>
• Ravenel
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravenel
  • Ravenel is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,768 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ravenel <6>
• Folly Beach
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Folly Beach
  • Folly Beach is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,682 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Folly Beach <6>
• Lincolnville
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincolnville
  • Lincolnville is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,624 people
• Sullivan's Island
  (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sullivan's Island
  • Sullivan's Island is located in Charleston County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,938 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sullivan's Island <6>

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Charleston. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Charleston.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Charleston. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Charleston.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Charleston. Our list includes 206 papers. See our Newspapers Page for Charleston.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Charleston ...

Looking for more information about Charleston? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Charleston, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Charleston.

Adding Charleston to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Charleston in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Charleston was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<7>

From that list, the Charleston post office opened in 1789.

We also found Charleston in the book titled U.S. Post Offices (Oct. 1846).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Charleston.

Off-the-Road Links ...

The official website for Charleston: www.charleston-sc.gov/

The official website for Charleston County: www.charlestoncounty.org/

The official website for State of South Carolina: https://sc.gov/