Most South Carolina Voters Weren’t Born in the State, a 2026 Poll Found
Election Day was Tuesday, and most South Carolina voters in line probably weren’t born in the state.
A 2026 Citadel Poll of registered voters found how many came from out of state, and how recently.
Here’s what the poll found about where South Carolina voters were born.
Who Ran the Numbers and How
The Citadel Poll surveyed 1,505 registered voters across South Carolina from May 21 to May 31, 2026.
Pollsters asked each voter whether they were born in the state and, if not, how long they’d lived there.
They asked registered voters only.
If you aren’t registered to vote, you weren’t in the pool.
These are the poll’s findings, starting with the voters who weren’t born in the state.
Born Somewhere Else
Three groups of registered voters in the poll weren’t born in South Carolina, and together they add up to about 57%.
Those groups arrived more than 10 years ago, five to 10 years ago, or within the past five years.
If you were born in another state, you’re in one of those three groups.
That leaves roughly 43% of registered voters who were born in the state.
Looking at every resident, not just voters, the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey puts the share born in the state at about 51%.
The 57% is an estimate.
What the Citadel Poll’s Margin Means
The margin of sampling error measures how far a result could drift because the poll asked 1,505 voters instead of every voter.
With a margin of 3.2 points, the 57% likely falls between about 54% and 60%.
It’s also a sum of three rounded shares, so it can sit a point or so off before the margin even applies.
Even at the low end of the poll’s range, more than half of registered voters were born somewhere else.
Newcomers of the Past Decade
Among registered voters, 23% weren’t born in South Carolina and moved to the state within the past 10 years.
Thirteen percent arrived in the past five years, and 10% arrived five to 10 years ago.
That’s nearly one in four.
If you were born elsewhere and moved to South Carolina in the past decade, you’re part of that 23%.
The Census Bureau’s latest population estimates show the state growing 1.5% from July 2024 to July 2025, the fastest percentage growth of any state.
In that same year, more people moved in from other states than moved out, a net gain of 66,622.
In 2024, an estimated 189,000 residents had lived in a different state a year earlier.
That’s roughly 3.5% of residents age 1 and older.
Longtime Transplants
The poll’s largest share, at 34%, is voters who weren’t born in South Carolina but moved there more than 10 years ago.
That’s a near tie.
The 32% who were born in the state and never left sit two points behind, inside the poll’s 3.2-point margin, so the order could flip.
Both shares are about one in three voters.
Another 11% were born in the state, moved away and later returned.
Seven of those 11 points came from voters who returned more than 10 years ago.
The other four points split evenly between the past five years and five to 10 years ago.
If you moved to South Carolina more than a decade ago, you were living in the state for all of its 8.8% population growth between April 2020 and July 2025.
Psst! How much do you know about South Carolina’s population? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Palmetto State Census IQ
Answer eight questions on South Carolina’s cities, counties, and Census numbers. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which South Carolina county ranked first among the Census Bureau’s fastest-growing counties between July 2024 and July 2025?
Where Residents Were Born
Nationwide, just over 56% of residents live in the state where they were born, so South Carolina's share of about 51% sits nearly six points lower.
By the same measure, Georgia and North Carolina, South Carolina's neighbors, are at about 53% and 52%, while Florida is at about 35%.
Florida is the outlier.
About 2.3 million of South Carolina's residents, roughly 42%, were born in another state.
Nearly half of them, about 46%, were born elsewhere in the Census Bureau's South region, which includes Georgia and North Carolina.
The Northeast is next at about 29%, followed by the Midwest at 16% and the West at 9%.
If you were born in the Northeast, you're part of the second-largest group of out-of-state births.
Separately, about 6% of residents, roughly 351,000 people, are foreign-born, well below the national figure of about 15%.
About 51% of them were born in Latin America, 24% in Asia and 16% in Europe.
Birthplace by County
In Beaufort County, which includes Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, only about 25% of residents were born in South Carolina, according to the American Community Survey.
About 65% were born in another state.
Residents born in the state are outnumbered.
Horry County, home to Myrtle Beach, is close behind, with about 30% born in the state and about 61% born in another state.
York County has nearly the same split, at about 30% and 61%.
Richland, Lexington and Spartanburg counties lean the other way, with about 53%, 56% and 55% of residents born in South Carolina.
County estimates rest on smaller samples than the statewide figure, so the percentages are approximate.
Charleston County, whose county seat is the city of Charleston, sits lower, with about 44% born in South Carolina and about 48% born in another state.
If you live in Charleston County, the person next door is a little more likely to have been born in another state than in South Carolina.
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