The US state of South Carolina is situated within the Deep South region of the nation. South Carolina shares its border with the state of Georgia to the south, North Carolina towards the north, and the Atlantic Ocean towards the east. South Carolina was first a part of the Province of Carolina, and was one of the thirteen colonies that declared independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The colony was originally named by King Charles II of England to honor Charles I, his father, since Carolus is Latin that means Charles. The state of South Carolina was the first state to vote to separate from the Union and was the founding state of the Confederate States of America. Based on the 2010 United States Census, South Carolina is ranked 24th among the U.S. states by population, at 4,625,384 inhabitants. The state of South Carolina consists of forty six counties and its capital is Columbia.
During 2007, the state of South Carolina had an estimated gross state product of $153 billion, based on the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Its per-capita real gross domestic product or GDP in 2000, was $26,772 during the year 1997, and $28,894 in 2007; that represents 85 percent of the $31,619 per-capita real GDP for the United States on the whole in 1997, and 76 percent of the $38,020 for the United States during 2007.
Key agricultural outputs of the state are: tobacco, poultry, dairy products, cattle, hogs, soybeans and rice. Industrial outputs consist of: textile goods, chemical products, machinery, paper products, tourism and automobiles and automotive parts.
The state of South Carolina shares its border with the state of North Carolina in the north, the state of Georgia towards the west across the Savannah River, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.
South Carolina is made up of four geographic regions, which they call physiographic provinces. The Coastal Plain lies within the southeast region of South Carolina, that are further divided into the inner and Outer Coastal Plains. From north to south the shore is divided into three separate areas, the Grand Strand, the Santee River Delta, and the Sea Islands. Further inland are the Sandhills, ancient dunes from what used to be South Carolina's coast millions of years ago. The Fall Line, that marks the limit of navigable rivers, runs along the boundary of the Piedmont and the sandhills, that has rolling hills and clay soils. In the northwest corner of the state are the Blue Ridge Mountains, the smallest geographical area in South Carolina.
The state's shore contains lots of estuaries and salt marshes, as well as natural ports like for instance Georgetown and Charleston. An unusual feature of the coastal plain is a large number of Carolina bays, the origins of which are uncertain. One incorrect but prominent theory says that they were created by a meteor shower. The bays tend to be oval, lining up in a northwest to southeast direction. The terrain is flat and the soil is composed entirely of recent sediments like for example clay, sand and silt. Areas with better drainage make great farmland, though some land is swampy.