South Carolina is a state in the United States that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution.
The colony was originally named in honor of King Charles I, as Carolus is Latin for Charles.
South Carolina was the first state to vote to secede from the Union and was the founding state of the Confederate States of America.
According to an estimate by the United States Census Bureau, the state's population in 2009 was 4,561,242 and ranked 24th among the U.S. states. South Carolina contains 46 counties and its capital is Columbia.
South Carolina is bordered to the north by North Carolina; to the south and west by Georgia, located across the Savannah River; and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.
South Carolina is composed of thirty-six geographic areas, whose boundaries roughly parallel the northeast/southwest Atlantic coastline. In the Southeast part of the state is the Coastal Zone, with the lowest elevations, which is divided into three separate areas, the Grand Strand, the Santee River Delta, and the Barrier Islands. To the Northwest (inland) are the Coastal Plains, often divided into the Outer and Inner Coastal Plains, also known as the Lowcountry. Further inland, and higher in elevation are the Sandhills, which used to be South Carolina's fall line. Inland from the Sandhills is the Piedmont, which is hilly, and contains many major cities. The region with the highest elevation, in the Northwest of the state, is the Blue Ridge Region, a mountainous area which is the smallest region.
The state's coastline contains many salt marshes and estuaries, as well as natural ports such as Georgetown and Charleston. An unusual feature of the coastal plain is a large number of Carolina bays, the origins of which are uncertain. One prominent theory suggests that they were created by a meteor shower. The bays tend to be oval, lining up in a northwest to southeast orientation.