186 replies to this topic

[CorgiMatt]

Over 600 hundred are coming to Fort Jackson this year or next and bringing their families with them.  And USC has 27,000 undergraduate students on in Columbia now and recent research says S.C. is retaining 2/3 of it college graduates and that the majorityof them settle in the metro area where the college or university they graduated from is located.

[erm1981]

^Thats a good statistic.  When I get through with Clemson I plan on staying around the Greenville metro if construction stays at the pace it currently is.  Currently Greenville has more construction going on then it ever has I believe.  Most of it is sprawl but still growth.  I wish it was more centered downtown.  To bad our states largest bank had to build a sprawling campus along I-85 instead of a 40 story tower downtown.  Oh well.....sigh.

[JT Boy]

CorgiMatt, on Dec 31 2007, 02:27 PM, said:

In my experiences up there, including five years of living in D.C. (part of the northeastern urban corridor), even after people knew me for a while they would often introduce me to other people as being from North Carolina.

I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about folks from other parts of the country mushing NC and SC into one nebulous entity.  Having lived in DC area for more than 20 years now, I constantly have people ask me about NC, and I constantly correct them that I am from SC.  Must be the same situation with SD and ND I would assume.

Also, Phoenix is a pit and anyone who voluntarily moves there, must be out of their gourd...  I was there on business a couple of summers ago and in the 3 days that I was there, the temp never dropped below 100, even at night!

[erm1981]

It might be better if North and south carolina were one state.  Then the south carolina cities could have north carolinas laws for annexation.

[CarolinaSouth]

erm1981, on Jan 3 2008, 06:07 PM, said:

^Thats a good statistic.  When I get through with Clemson I plan on staying around the Greenville metro if construction stays at the pace it currently is.  Currently Greenville has more construction going on then it ever has I believe.  Most of it is sprawl but still growth.  I wish it was more centered downtown.  To bad our states largest bank had to build a sprawling campus along I-85 instead of a 40 story tower downtown.  Oh well.....sigh.

How do you think Columbians feel about SCANNA bolting downtown to build a sprawling campus in Cayce instead of a mid to high rise tower downtown. What sucks is that that have this beautiful landscaped campus with various fountains and walking paths that no one will ever in the city will ever enjoy[outside of the workers and a few business clients].

[erm1981]

Yeah...its the same kind of scenario.....too bad.

[Spartan]

erm1981, on Feb 24 2008, 10:48 AM, said:

It might be better if North and south carolina were one state.  Then the south carolina cities could have north carolinas laws for annexation.

Or NC might have SC's laws  

[sonofaque86]

Spartan, on Feb 24 2008, 10:12 PM, said:

Or NC might have SC's laws  

dun dun DUUUUUN

[GvilleSC]

Greenville's 2007 growth top seven in nation

Quote

More newcomers flowed into Greenville County last year than any other year since the 2000 census, fueling an estimated population growth rate that's in the top seventh nationwide

In 2007, Greenville County added 11,734 bringing its total population to 428,243. That doesn't seem like it would be 7th in the nation, but that's what they're saying...

As for the 2000-2007 time period, the state's counties grew as followed:

COUNTY -------- 2000 Pop. ----- 2007 Est. ----- % Change ---- National Rank ---- Change
Dorchester ------------ 96,341 ------- 123,505 --------- 28.2% --------- 102 ----------- 27,164
Horry ----------------- 196,660 ------- 249,925 --------- 27.1% --------- 109 ----------- 53,265
York ------------------ 164,623 ------- 208,827 --------- 26.9% --------- 113 ----------- 44,204
Beaufort -------------- 120,948 ------ 147,316 --------- 21.8% ---------- 158 ---------- 26,368
Lancaster -------------- 61,351 -------- 73,393 --------- 19.6% --------- 193 ----------- 12,042
Berkeley ------------- 142,653 ------- 163,622 --------- 14.7% --------- 322 ----------- 20,969
Greenville ------------ 379,612 ------- 428,243 --------- 12.8% --------- 388 ----------- 48,631
Lexington ------------- 216,010 ------- 243,270 --------- 12.6% --------- 394 ---------- 27,260
Richland -------------- 320,781 ------- 357,734 --------- 11.5% --------- 440 ----------- 36,953
Charleston ----------- 309,978 ------- 342,973 --------- 10.6% --------- 477 ----------- 32,995
Anderson ------------- 165,740 ------- 179,981 ---------- 8.6% --------- 628 ----------- 14,241
Spartanburg --------- 253,782 ------- 275,534 ---------- 8.6% ---------- 630 ----------- 22,752


Herald Journal Article

Quote

The fastest-growing areas in Spartanburg County were Boiling Springs and the western part of the county between Highway 290 and Greer

I think the western part of Spartanburg County's growth, though not ENTIRELY, can easily be attributed to Greenville. For that reason, I think we'll for sure see Spartanburg and Greenville Counties combined again as a part of one MSA in 2010.

Edited by GvilleSC, 20 March 2008 - 04:40 AM.

[Spartan]

I think they must have meant 7th in the state because if it were the nation, SC would have all 7 fast growing counties

The growth in Horry County is impressive. Its going to be interesting to see how the housing slump plays out there.

[krazeeboi]

GvilleSC, on Mar 20 2008, 06:31 AM, said:

I think the western part of Spartanburg County's growth, though not ENTIRELY, can easily be attributed to Greenville. For that reason, I think we'll for sure see Spartanburg and Greenville Counties combined again as a part of one MSA in 2010.

It will still largely depend on the relative size of the job base in each county and the commuting patterns. The trend lately has been breaking up larger metros in multi-nodal regions to give smaller primary cities their own MSAs (eg, Fort Worth, Durham, etc.). But who knows what might happen, especially since the bureau changes the metro area definitions every couple of years.

[GvilleSC]

Spartan, on Mar 20 2008, 07:33 AM, said:

I think they must have meant 7th in the state because if it were the nation, SC would have all 7 fast growing counties

The growth in Horry County is impressive. Its going to be interesting to see how the housing slump plays out there.

I don't know. My understanding was that they were saying Greenville's "#7" growth rate was for ONE year (2007), but that doesn't make sense. I'm sure The Greenville News either didn't read their final edition for errors, or have data they're not sharing.

Edited by GvilleSC, 20 March 2008 - 08:27 AM.

[GvilleSC]

The 2007 population increase for the largest and fastest growing counties in SC:


Greenville : 11,734
York: 10,395
Horry : 10,171
Richland : 6,570
Dorchester: 5,753
Spartanburg: 5,632
Berkeley: 5,008
Lexington: 4,940
Beaufort: 3,702
Anderson: 2,895
Charleston: 2,167
Lancaster: 1,670

[CorgiMatt]

The Greenville News article says Greenville County's population growth was in the top seventh, meaning that you divide the 388 counties in the nation, or however many they said, by 7 (388 divided by 7 = 55).  So the county was somewhere in the top 55 counties nationwide in growth.  Regarding the combined MSA of GSA, a clarification is in order.  The Census Bureau never took away GSA's status as an MSA.  What they did was added CMSA's, meaning core-based MSA's, which they say gives a more accurate picture of how a metro functions as a unit.  Columbia is the core of its CMSA, Greenville is the core of the Greenville CMSA, and Spartanburg is the core of its CMSA.  MSA's are not core-based, but CMSA's are.  In other words, Greenville is not considered the core of the GSA area because Anderson and Spartanburg are large enough to be considered their own economic engines, whereas Lexington (county and town) is what it is today only because of Columbia.  If there never had been a Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson might each very well each be even larger than they are now because of their history of being economic hubs in their own right, and Greenville County would be a rural/suburban area between the two.

[krazeeboi]

^Although the correct abbreviation is CSA, Corgi you're correct in your assessments. You could also look at it in terms of urbanized areas. Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson are separate and distinct urbanized areas, whereas Lexington and North Charleston are included in the urbanized areas of the primary cities in their regions (Columbia and Charleston, respectively--for anyone not familiar with those areas ).

I suppose we've now got enough information to calculate MSA estimates for 2007.

I think we're going to see a marked decrease for Horry in next year's estimates. The housing downtown is hitting Myrtle Beach pretty significantly. York is continuing to be a boomtown suburban county for Charlotte, which I don't see slowing down anytime soon. As far as the Big Three, it doesn't appear as though there have been any significant spikes in growth, but the steadily increasing population statistics is encouraging.

[Spartan]

That makes more sense, because today's Observer says that Union County, NC is the nation's 7th fastest growing county. It doesn't really specify if that was over the past year or since 2000.

Technically, Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson are all "core" cities, though "core" is not really the right terms for it. Its more accurately defined as "central cities," and they are defined as their own urban areas with populations over 50,000. Spartanburg's UA is at 145,000, and Anderson's is at about 75,000 as of the 2000 Census. If Greenville and Spartanburg were to merge UAs, for example, you could argue that Greenville is the "central city" in the Greenville-Spartanburg UA (something akin to Columbia and Lexington), although it would in reality be more of a bipolar scenario.

I feel I should clarify your comments, Corgi. The term is Consolidated Statistical Area (CSA), not CMSA. There are now three levels of metropolitan analysis. You have µSA, MSA and CSA. (Micropolitan Statistical Areas (µSA) are counties with urban cluster populations of 30,000-49,999.) There are three MSA's in the Upstate. Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson. Greenville's MSA is the only one to include multiple counties (Gville, Laurens, Pickens). Cherokee, Union and Oconee were added to the former MSA counties to create the GSA CSA.

Right after the last Census there was about a year or so where Spartanburg had a separate MSA and CSA that included Cherokee and Union. Anderson was included in Greenville's CSA that also included the Gville MSA and the Seneca µSA. But for political reasons and perhaps due to further analysis, the Upstate was recombined to create one CSA, which is more indicative of what is really happening here.

[krazeeboi]

By my calculations, the Greenville MSA lead the state in terms of raw population increase at 13,315. Next is Charleston with an increase of 12,928. Columbia's increase in 2007 comes to 12,247.

This is now how the MSAs of the Big Three look:
• Greenville: 615,301
• Charleston: 616,106
• Columbia: 716,018

[CorgiMatt]

Something I've noticed is that each year the difference in the number of people gained in the Columbia and Charleston CSA's is becoming smaller and smaller.  Last year the difference was only 651 in Charleston's favor.  Compare that to how many more Charleston gained from 2000 to 2001, from 2001 to 2002 and so on up till last year.  If the trend continues next year, Columbia should pull even or ahead in new bodies and continue its sizeable lead.

[Spartan]

Indeed. It seems like most have underestimated Columbia.

[GvilleSC]

krazeeboi, on Mar 20 2008, 01:01 PM, said:

By my calculations, the Greenville MSA lead the state in terms of raw population increase at 13,315. Next is Charleston with an increase of 12,928. Columbia's increase in 2007 comes to 12,247.

This is now how the MSAs of the Big Three look:
• Greenville: 615,301
• Charleston: 616,106
• Columbia: 716,018

I think it's interesting that Greenville's MSA is only about 800 people behind Charleston's. That's without Powdersville or all of Greater Greer, while Charleston doesn't really lack significant population lost to other counties that aren't included in the MSA configuration.

Also, thanks CorgiMatt for reading into the wording of the article. Top sevenTH makes a lot more sense! I was ready to write it off as another Greenville News mishap.

Edited by GvilleSC, 20 March 2008 - 04:24 PM.