Charleston County, SC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Charleston County, South Carolina, shaded from 5 ft below sea level on the northeast side to 160 ft on the northwest side
Elevation
160 ft 50 m120 ft 35 m97 ft 30 m56 ft 17 m15 ft 5 m−5 ft −2 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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How to use this mapviews, tools and data
Elevation
Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite
A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D
Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere
The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure
Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
County area
Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Charleston County averages about 13 ft (4 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 5 ft below sea level on the northeast side to 160 ft on the northwest side.

Average elevation
13 ft 4 m
all land inside the county
Highest
160 ft 50 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
−5 ft −2 m
on the northeast side

Charleston County spans about 165 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

21% of Charleston County's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 13% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map

FigureElevation
Average of all land13 ft4 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the northwest side
160 ft50 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the northeast side
−5 ft−2 m

Elevation profile, west to east

44 mi west to east through Charleston.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Charleston County, South Carolina, shaded from 5 ft below sea level on the northeast side to 160 ft on the northwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
County in South Carolina, United States
Population
431,001 2024 est.
Land area
918.3 sq mi + 448.6 sq mi water
Density
469 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Coastal Plain 97%
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Dorchester County60 ft
  2. Colleton County49 ft
  3. Berkeley County43 ft
  4. Georgetown County18 ft
  5. Charleston County13 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Windsor Hills30 ft
All 19 towns in Charleston County by typical elevation
  1. Lincolnville74 ft
  2. Summerville partly59 ft
  3. Ladson partly40 ft
  4. Adams Run38 ft
  5. Ravenel27 ft
  6. North Charleston24 ft
  7. Hollywood17 ft
  8. Awendaw15 ft
  9. James Island11 ft
  10. Charleston10 ft
  11. Rockville10 ft
  12. Mount Pleasant10 ft
  13. Meggett9 ft
  14. McClellanville7 ft
  15. Isle of Palms7 ft
  16. Sullivan's Island7 ft
  17. Seabrook Island6 ft
  18. Kiawah Island6 ft
  19. Folly Beach5 ft
How we measure
  • Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 2 arc-second (≈200 ft, 62 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
  • Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −58 ft at 32.8182° N, 80.1046° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
  • Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
  • Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
  • Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
  • Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
  • Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones; NOAA tidal surfaces (MHHW). All public domain.