Folly Beach, SC Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

28 ft 9 m20 ft 6 m16 ft 5 m7 ft 2 m−1 ft 0 m−5 ft −2 m

Contours every 100 ft, bold every 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.
City area: Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Folly Beach sits at about 5 ft (2 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation

5 ft 2 m

most residents: 1–9 ft

Lowest

−5 ft −2 m

on the northeast side

Highest

14 ft 4 m

near the middle

Average

2 ft 1 m

all land inside city limits

Folly Beach is nearly flat: its ground varies by only about 19 ft, so the figures below sit close together.

76% of Folly Beach's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 16% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map

Figure	Elevation
Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower	5 ft2 m
Highest point Inside city limits, near the middle	14 ft4 m
Lowest point Inside city limits, on the northeast side	−5 ft−2 m
Town center USGS map point for Folly Beach	8 ft2 m
Airport (JZI) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 2.0 mi northwest of the city limits	19 ft6 m
Average of all land	2 ft1 m

Topographic Map

Location: City in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States
Population: 2,084 2024 est.
Land area: 12.7 sq mi + 5.9 sq mi water
Density: 165 per sq mi
Coordinates: 32.6552° N, 79.9404° W
Time zone: Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region: Coastal Plain
Drains to: Atlantic Ocean
Airport: Charleston Exec (JZI) 19 ft
ZIP codes 2: 29412 29439

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

Rankings by typical elevation

Towns in South Carolina473rd highest of 475
Towns in Charleston Countylowest of 17

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 tidal surfaces (MHHW). All public domain.