Columbia, SC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
550 ft 165 m440 ft 135 m390 ft 120 m280 ft 85 m170 ft 55 m120 ft 35 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Columbia sits at about 260 ft (80 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
260 ft 80 m
most residents: 180–330 ft
Lowest
120 ft 35 m
on the south side
Highest
550 ft 165 m
on the east side
Average
290 ft 90 m
all land inside city limits
Columbia spans about 430 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 260 ft80 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the east side | 550 ft165 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the south side | 120 ft35 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Columbia | 290 ft90 m |
| Airport (CAE) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 5.0 mi southwest of the city limits | 236 ft72 m |
| Average of all land | 290 ft90 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
7.3 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Richland and Lexington counties, South Carolina, United States
- Population
- 144,788 2024 est.
- Land area
- 139.8 sq mi + 2.9 sq mi water
- Density
- 1,036 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 34.0007° N, 81.0348° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Coastal Plain
- Drains to
- Santee River → Atlantic Ocean
- Airport
- Columbia Metro (CAE) 236 ft
- ZIP codes 16
- 29044 29045 29063 29201 29203 29204 29205 29206 29207 29208 29209 29210 29212 29223 29225 29229
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Dentsville270 ft
- St. Andrews270 ft
- West Columbia270 ft
- Capitol View270 ft
- Columbia260 ft
- Forest Acres240 ft
- Springdale230 ft
- Arcadia Lakes220 ft
- Cayce190 ft
- Olympia180 ft
- Arthurtown150 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in South Carolina250th highest of 475
- Towns in Richland County8th highest of 15
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Nursery Hill400 ft
- Brice Hill390 ft
- Cooks Mount370 ft
- Quinine Hill350 ft
- Dunns Mount321 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) 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).
- 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 (FAA airport elevation, 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 (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.