12,870 people (2024 Census estimate, −2.9% since 2020)
393 square miles of land · 33 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.
4 active community water systems list Bamberg County in the area they serve, reporting 8,033 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| BAMBERG PUBLIC WORKS (SC0510001) groundwater · local government · SC0510001 | 3,735 served |
| DENMARK CITY OF (SC0510002) groundwater · local government · SC0510002 | 3,500 served |
| EHRHARDT TOWN OF (SC0510003) groundwater · local government · SC0510003 | 507 served |
| OLAR GOVAN WATER SYSTEM (0510004) groundwater · local government · SC0510004 | 291 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 14 people were held in Bamberg County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 166 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 32.
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.
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 Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Bamberg County about $9.3 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Low; social vulnerability: Very High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
82 bridges in Bamberg County: 10 in good condition, 65 fair, and 7 poor (8.5%). “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.
| S-5-20 over SOUTH EDISTO RIVER · built 1971 | 900 vehicles a day |
| S-5-20 over BRIER BRANCH · built 1963 | 500 vehicles a day |
| S-5-32 over LITTLE SALKEHATCHIE RIVE · built 1953 | 175 vehicles a day |
| S-5-12 over LEMON SWAMP · built 1955 | 175 vehicles a day |
| S-5-75 over COLSTON BRANCH · built 1954 | 150 vehicles a day |
| S-5-385 over SMITH BRANCH · built 1959 | 125 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $12.1 million of work in Bamberg County in fiscal 2025, about $907 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 Bamberg 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 Bamberg County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of South Carolina: the state government and every county in South Carolina.
Nearby counties: Orangeburg County (22 mi) · Barnwell County (22 mi) · Allendale County (24 mi) · Hampton County (30 mi) · Colleton County (33 mi) · Calhoun County (36 mi).