A Few Facts About Charleston, South Carolina

Did you know...

7.6 square miles is all the area that the peninsula of Charleston makes up, while there are almost 150 total square miles within the entire city of Charleston.

1773 was the year that the very first public museum in America, the Charleston Museum, opened.

118,492 people reside within Charleston city limits, according to a 2007 census.

$35,295 is the median family income in the city of Charleston, which is more than $10,000 below the national average.

4 US cities were more populated than Charleston in 1800.  Today there are more than 200.

1.5 times as many people live in the city of Charleston than did in 1980, due in part to consistent annexation over the last 25 years.

1788 was when Charles Cotsworth Pinckney ceded the land on which the City Market is built, doing so with one specific and detailed stipulation: a public market was to be built on the site and remain in use until perpetuity.

1989 is the year that Hurricane Hugo struck the Lowcountry.  Incredibly, the city's population has grown by 33% since that fateful event.

And 1 is the number of different mayors the city of Charleston has elected since 1975, the year Mayor Joseph P. Riley first took office.

*Photo courtesy of sheogre on Flickr