The Upstate is the region in the westernmost part of South Carolina, United States, also known as the Upcountry, which is the historical term. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerce-rich

I-85 corridor Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, n ...

in the northwest corner of South Carolina. This definition coincided with the Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson, SC combined statistical area, as first defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2015. In 2018, the OMB redefined the CSA such that it no longer included Abbeville County. That definition remains as of 2020. The region's population was 1,347,112 as of 2016. Situated between Atlanta and Charlotte, the Upstate is the geographical center of the Charlanta megaregion. After BMW's initial investment, foreign companies, including others from Germany, have a substantial presence in the Upstate; several large corporations have established regional, national, or continental headquarters in the area. Greenville is the largest city in the region with a population of 72,227 and an urban-area population of 400,492, and it is the base of most commercial activity. Spartanburg and Anderson are next in population.

Counties

Ten counties are included in the Upstate of South Carolina: Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Pickens, Oconee,

Greenwood Green wood is unseasoned wood. Greenwood or Green wood may also refer to: People * Greenwood (surname) Settlements Australia * Greenwood, Queensland, a locality in the Toowoomba Region * Greenwood, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth C ...

, Laurens, Cherokee, Union, Abbeville.

Metropolitan, micropolitan, and combined statistical areas

As of 2018, the Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson CSA includes all counties in the Upstate except for Abbeville County. Within the CSA are a total of two metropolitan statistical areas and four micropolitan statistical areas. As of the 2010 Census, the Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson CSA had a population of 1,362,073.

Communities

The following population rankings are based on the 2010 CensusSee http://factfinder.census.gov for population numbers and for municipality and CDP lists.

Primary cities

Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson The OMB labels all these cities as

principal cities In the United States, a principal city is the core city or cities in a metropolitan area. The largest city in each metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area is designated a "principal city." Additional cities qualify if specified requirements ...

in their respective MSAs.

Other communities with at least 20,000 residents

Cities:

, Greer, and Mauldin In the 2016 Census population estimate, the cities of

Easley Easley may refer to: Places in the United States * Easley, Alabama, in Blount County, Alabama * Easley, Iowa * Easley, Missouri, in Boone County, Missouri * Easley, South Carolina, in Pickens Counties Persons *Easley (name) Other uses * ...

and Simpsonville have populations that exceed 20,000. The OMB labelled Mauldin and Easley as principal cities from 2015 to 2018. CDPs:

Taylors Taylors is a census-designated place (CDP) in Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 21,617 at the 2010 census. Taylors is the Greenville/Spartanburg area's largest suburb although it is not incorporated as a city. ...

, Wade Hampton

Communities with more than 10,000 residents

Cities: Clemson and

Gaffney Gaffney is a surname common to the region of Cavan in Ireland, and now spread across other English-speaking nations. Gaffney comes from the Gaelic septs of Ó Gamhna, Mac Conghamhna and Ó Caibheanaigh. Gaffney more commonly does not appear with ...

. If students from Clemson University are included, Clemson has close to 30,000 residents. CDP's:

Berea Berea may refer to: Places Greece * Beroea, a place mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, now known as Veria or Veroia Lesotho * Berea District Romania * Berea, a village in Ciumești Commune, Satu Mare County * Berea, a tributary of the Va ...

, Five Forks, Gantt,

Parker Parker may refer to: Persons * Parker (given name) * Parker (surname) Places Place names in the United States *Parker, Arizona *Parker, Colorado * Parker, Florida * Parker, Idaho * Parker, Kansas * Parker, Missouri * Parker, North Carolina *Park ...

Communities with fewer than 10,000 residents

Communities in the Upstate with under 10,000 residents include: Cities: Towns: According to the 2010 Census, no town in the Upstate has a population greater than 6000. CDPs:

Institutions of higher education

The following table shows the major institutions of higher education in the Upstate. In 2008, ''U.S. News'' ranked Furman as the 37th-best liberal arts college, Wofford College as the 59th-best, and Presbyterian College as the 101st-best. Also, they ranked Clemson University as the 67th-best national university. According to the Bob Jones University, its Museum and Gallery constitutes the largest collection of religious art in the Western Hemisphere.

Economy

The majority of business and commerce in the Upstate takes place in Greenville County. Greenville has the largest concentration of businesses and financial institutions in its downtown area. In fact, the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson MSA was ranked seventh in the nation by site consultants considering the top markets for economic development. Many financial institutions have regional offices located in downtown Greenville. These include Bank of America and the now-defunct Wachovia. Other major industries of commerce in the Upstate include the auto industry, which is concentrated mainly along the corridor between Greenville and Spartanburg around the BMW manufacturing facility in Greer. The other major industry in the Upstate is the healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Greenville Hospital System and Bon Secours St. Francis Health System are the area's largest in the healthcare sector, while the pharmaceutical corporation of Bausch & Lomb has set up regional operations alongside smaller recently developed local companies such as IRIX Manufacturing and Pharmaceutical Associates. The Upstate is also home to a large number of private-sector and university-based research including R&D facilities for Michelin, Fuji, and General Electric and research centers to support the automotive, life sciences, plastics, and photonics industries. Clemson University, BMW, IBM, Microsoft, and

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

have combined their resources to create

Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research The Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) is a automotive and motorsports research campus in Greenville, South Carolina. The facility includes a graduate school offering Master's and Doctoral degrees in automo ...

, a research park that specializes in the development of automotive technology.

Corporations based in or with a major presence in the Upstate

These corporations have a major presence in the Upstate:

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

Advance America Advance America may refer to: * Advance America (advocacy group), a political lobbying organization in Indiana * A payday loan provider in the United States owned by Grupo Elektra Grupo Elektra is a Mexican financial and retailing corporation es ...

, Bank of America, BMW of North America
Bon Secours St. Francis Health SystemBosch North America
Denny's, Denny's Restaurants,

Dunlop Sport Dunlop Sport is a British sports equipment manufacturing company established in 1910 that focuses on racquet sports, more specifically tennis, squash, padel and badminton. Products by Dunlop Sport include rackets, strings, balls, shuttlecocks, ...

, Ernst & Young, Fluor Corporation, Freightliner
GE Power SystemsPrisma Health
IBM
Kemet CorporationLiberty Corporation

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System (SRHS) is one of South Carolina's largest healthcare systems. SRHS draws patients primarily from the areas of Spartanburg, Cherokee, Union, and Greenville counties (all located in the Piedmont region of South ...

Michelin of North America
Microsoft, Milliken & Company,
Spartanburg Regional Health SystemSpectrum CommunicationsSunTrust
Ovation Brands
Perrigo Company of South Carolina
Techtronic Industries
Toronto-Dominion Bank
and Verizon. • BMW's only North American manufacturing plant is located in Spartanburg County, with an investment of $3.7 billion. • Fujifilm located their first manufacturing facility in the U.S. in Greenwood County. • Michelin North America's headquarters is located in Greenville, along with seven manufacturing plants, R&D facility, and test track located in the Upstate. Michelin employs more than 7,800 in South Carolina. • Walgreens has their southeastern distribution center located in Anderson County, which employs mentally disabled workers as nearly 40% of their workforce.http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6466542.html

Transportation

The Upstate is served by two major interstate highways,

I-85 Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with Interstate 65, I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with Interstate 95, I ...

and

I-26 I26 may refer to: * Interstate 26 Interstate 26 (I-26) is a main route of the Interstate Highway System in the Southeastern United States. Nominally east–west, as indicated by its even number, I-26 runs from the junction of U.S. Route 11W ...

. Other major interstate spurs include I-185, I-385, and I-585. The major airport in the region is

Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport The Upstate is the region in the westernmost part of South Carolina, United States, also known as the Upcountry, which is the historical term. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerc ...

, located nearly halfway between Greenville and Spartanburg in suburban Greer. Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Clemson, Pickens, Union, and Gaffney each have smaller airfields. Amtrak service along the Crescent Line stops in Spartanburg, Greenville, and Clemson.

Media

The Upstate region is served by three regional newspapers: ''

The Greenville News ''The Greenville News'' is a daily morning newspaper published in Greenville, South Carolina. After ''The State'' in Columbia and Charleston's ''The Post and Courier'', it is the third largest paper in South Carolina. History ''The Greenville N ...

'', the (Spartanburg) '' Herald-Journal'', and the ''

Anderson Independent-Mail The ''Anderson Independent-Mail'', marketed as ''Independent Mail'' and sometimes referred to as ''Anderson Independent Mail'', is a newspaper for Anderson County in the state of South Carolina. It is owned by GANNETT SATELLITE INFORMATION NETWO ...

'', each of which serves its individual city and surrounding area. The Upstate is part of the vastly larger Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson- Asheville designated market area, which extends into western North Carolina and northeastern Georgia. These television stations serve the region: * WYFF Channel 4 – Greenville ( NBC) * WSPA-TV Channel 7 – Spartanburg ( CBS) *

WLOS-TV WLOS (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Asheville, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting ABC and MyNetworkTV programming to Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which prov ...

Channel 13 – Asheville, North Carolina (

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

) * WGGS-TV Channel 16 – Greenville ( TBN) *

WHNS WHNS (channel 21), branded on air as Fox Carolina, is a television station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States, broadcasting Fox network programming to Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina. Owned by Gray Television, ...

Channel 21 – Greenville (

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

) *

WNTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Television ...

Channel 29 – Greenville (

SCETV South Carolina Educational Television (branded as South Carolina ETV, SCETV or simply ETV) is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television stations serving the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is owned and operated b ...

) * WUNF-TV Channel 33 – Asheville ( UNC-TV) * WMYA-TV Channel 40 – Anderson ( MNTV) * WYCW Channel 62 – Asheville ( CW)

References

External links