53033 FipsDecoder
45051 County FIPS Code

Horry County

South Carolina · County seat: Conway · Active county or equivalent

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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

State FIPS

45

SC

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

45 051
45 = State FIPS (South Carolina)
051 = County FIPS

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.

Census ACS API — Python 45051
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, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 45051
-- 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
R — tidycensus 45051
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "45",
  county    = "051",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 45 (not 45) and 051 (not 51) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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%

Other Counties in South Carolina