The area has become a major retirement center in the United States, in part because of its low cost of living, mild weather, and numerous golf courses.
Inland is a belt featuring rivers, marshes, Carolina bays, and sandy rises where forestry is predominant.
Further inland, on higher ground, but still of only slight relief, is an agricultural belt of cultivation of tobacco, cotton, soybeans and produce.
As late as the 1970s, it was still so rural that Florence's second television station, WPDE-TV, obtained a Farmers Home Administration loan to build a studio and tower.
Republican Tom Rice defeated Democrat Gloria Tinubu, both of Horry County, 54.9% to 45.1%, to represent South Carolina's new House seat.
[9] (population figures is from 2020 census estimates) The area is served by four commercial broadcast television stations, WBTW CBS 13, WPDE ABC 15, WMBF NBC 32 and WFXB Fox 43, the first two with twin studios at Florence and Myrtle Beach, as well as two educational television stations substations, WHMC-TV, in Conway, South Carolina, and WJPM-TV in Florence, South Carolina Daily newspapers include The Sun News of Myrtle Beach and The Morning News of Florence.