Where people come from
Birthplace, language, and military service in Charleston.
On this page
At a glance
Born in South Carolina
41.2%
2019–23
Foreign-born
5.4%
2019–23
Speak another language at home
7.2%
Residents age 5 and over.
2019–23
Veterans
8,564
ACS 2020–24
Composition
Where they were born
The figures behind the chart
| Share of residents | Value |
|---|---|
| Born in South Carolina | 41.2% |
| Another Southern state | 21.7% |
| The Northeast | 15.5% |
| The Midwest | 10.1% |
| The West | 4.4% |
| Abroad, to U.S. parents | 1.7% |
| Another country | 5.4% |
2019–23 · B05002
Composition
What they speak at home
The figures behind the chart
| Share of residents age 5+ | Value |
|---|---|
| English only | 92.8% |
| Spanish | 3.6% |
| Other Indo-European | 1% |
| Asian and Pacific Island | 1.2% |
| French, Haitian, or Cajun | 0.5% |
| German or Slavic | 0.6% |
| Arabic and other | 0.3% |
2019–23 · C16001
Reading it
What’s notable
41.2% of residents were born in South Carolina, and 51.7% moved here from another state. A city where a large minority arrived from elsewhere is a city whose politics, food, and housing market are all being renegotiated at once.
7.2% of residents over five speak a language other than English at home, and 3.6% speak Spanish. That is modest by national standards and concentrated enough geographically that it is invisible in much of the city and unmistakable in the rest.
Birthplace and language answer different questions and are easy to conflate. A household speaking Spanish at home is far more often a family with American-born children than a recently arrived one - the language persists a generation or two past the migration.
Sources
These are estimates. Most figures here come from surveys of a sample, not a count of everyone, and different rows carry different vintages - each number shows its own rather than being averaged into a single date.
Data retrieved: July 29, 2026
Questions
How many people in Charleston were born in South Carolina?+
41.2% of residents - about 62,644 people. The rest arrived from another state or another country, which is what makes this a growing city rather than a stable one.
What percentage of Charleston is foreign-born?+
5.4%, roughly 8,249 residents. That counts everyone born outside the United States regardless of citizenship, including naturalized citizens who have lived here for decades.
Does speaking another language at home mean not speaking English?+
No. The Census Bureau asks about home language and English proficiency as separate questions, and most people who speak another language at home also report speaking English well or very well. This chart shows only the first.
Why are the language categories grouped so broadly?+
Because that is how the Bureau publishes them at this geography. The detailed table has dozens of individual languages, but at city scale most fall below the threshold for a reliable estimate, so the grouped table is the honest one.