179,245 people (2024 Census estimate, +6.0% since 2020)
1,071 square miles of land · 167 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
24 active community water systems list Aiken County in the area they serve, reporting 145,402 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| AIKEN CITY OF (SC0210001) surface water · local government · SC0210001 | 51,533 served |
| NORTH AUGUSTA CITY OF (SC0210003) surface water · local government · SC0210003 | 26,125 served |
| BREEZY HILL W/D (SC0220006) surface water · local government · SC0220006 | 21,197 served |
| BEECH ISLAND W/D (SC0220004) groundwater · local government · SC0220004 | 8,935 served |
| VALLEY PSA (SC0220012) groundwater · local government · SC0220012 | 7,752 served |
| NEW ELLENTON CPW (SC0210007) groundwater · local government · SC0210007 | 7,517 served |
| TROLLEY RUN STATION DEVELOPMENT(0220016) groundwater · private · SC0220016 | 4,361 served |
| MONTMORENCI W/D (SC0220008) groundwater · local government · SC0220008 | 4,006 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 377 people were held in Aiken County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2021), or 355 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2016 it was about 372.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
1 school district has its office in Aiken County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $358.6 million — $277.4 million to run schools, about $11,967 per student, plus $69.7 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $184 million local (mostly property tax), $172 million state, $49.7 million federal. Long-term debt: $246.7 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Relatively Moderate compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Aiken County about $47.5 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Low; social vulnerability: Relatively Moderate.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
198 bridges in Aiken County: 64 in good condition, 114 fair, and 20 poor (10.1%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| I-20 WB over S.C. 19 · built 1968 | 18,700 vehicles a day |
| SC 421 over SOU. RAILROAD · built 1956 | 9,000 vehicles a day |
| SC 421 over LITTLE HORSE CREEK · built 1926 | 9,000 vehicles a day |
| SC 421 over HORSE CREEK · built 1957 | 9,000 vehicles a day |
| US 278 & SC 125 over SOU. RAILROAD · built 1951 | 8,100 vehicles a day |
| US 278 over HORSE CREEK · built 1951 | 8,100 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $74.1 million of work in Aiken County in fiscal 2025, about $439 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for South Carolina are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Aiken County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Aiken County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of South Carolina: the state government and every county in South Carolina.
Nearby counties: Barnwell County (23 mi) · Edgefield County (25 mi) · Richmond County, GA (29 mi) · Lexington County (31 mi) · Saluda County (32 mi) · Columbia County, GA (35 mi).