[4] Lancaster County is included in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The majority of the new settlers were Scots-Irish who had migrated from Pennsylvania, where they had landed in Philadelphia.

Many of the early settlers migrated to South Carolina from Lancaster, Lancashire in the northwest region of England.

A second settlement was made in the lower part of the present Lancaster County on Hanging Rock Creek.

The South Carolina colony first made a grant to settlers there in 1752; it included the overhanging mass of rock for which the creek was named.

The increased traffic began to enlarge the paths and improve them as dirt roads.

During the American Revolutionary War, Colonel Abraham Buford and his forces fled from Tarleton along this road.

He was overtaken a few miles south of the North Carolina state line, where the Patriot forces were defeated in the Battle of Waxhaws.

Today, the Rocky River Road has been absorbed by part of South Carolina Highway 522, which was constructed following the old thoroughfare very closely.

At the 2010 census, there were 76,652 people, 29,697 households, and 21,122 families living in the county.

23.70% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

[22] As of April 2024[update], some of the largest employers in the county include Food Lion and Walmart.