Horry County
South Carolina · County seat: Conway · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 45051 is Horry County, South Carolina. With a population of 356,578 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #4 in South Carolina and #201 nationally. Horry County is part of the Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC. The state FIPS code for South Carolina is 45. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
45051
Population
356,578
2022 ACS · #201 nationally
Density
314.5/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
1,134
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 250K–1M population
RUCC 2
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 45051 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 45 (South Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 051. Together they uniquely identify Horry County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 45051
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 45051.
Median Household Income
$59,880
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
13.1%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
47.6
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Horry County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 45051.
Federal Datasets Using Code 45051
FIPS code 45051 appears as the county identifier in the following federal datasets. Analysts joining data across these sources use this code as the common geographic key.
Using FIPS Code 45051 in Code
Common patterns for querying federal datasets by this county's FIPS code. The leading zeros are significant — always treat FIPS codes as strings, not integers.
import requests
url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
"get": "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
"for": "county:051",
"in": "state:45",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Horry County, South Carolina, income, pop, ...]
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '45051';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '45'
AND county_fips = '051';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 45051 is WRONG for this county
library(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "45",
county = "051",
year = 2022
)
ZIP Codes in Horry County
ZIP codes do not align perfectly with county boundaries — a single ZIP code can span multiple counties, and a county can contain parts of many ZIP codes. The ratios below (from the Census 2020 ZCTA relationship file) show the land area share of each ZCTA that falls within Horry County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 29588 | 100.0% |
| 29526 | 100.0% |
| 29527 | 100.0% |
| 29544 | 100.0% |
| 29545 | 100.0% |
| 29566 | 100.0% |
| 29568 | 100.0% |
| 29569 | 100.0% |
| 29572 | 100.0% |
| 29575 | 100.0% |
| 29582 | 100.0% |
| 29511 | 100.0% |
| 29577 | 100.0% |
| 29579 | 100.0% |
| 29581 | 73.6% |
| 29576 | 55.5% |