Chesterfield County, South Carolina Eviction Risk: Moderate

Chesterfield County sits in the Pee Dee region of northeastern South Carolina eviction laws, anchored by a small but concentrated rental market where about 43.3% of households rent rather than own. The county's eviction risk score stands at 4.2/10 (Moderate), placing it 7th out of 46 counties statewide - putting it in the higher-risk third of South Carolina eviction laws despite carrying a score well below the most tenant-protective markets. Across the county's 8 tracked municipalities, individual city scores run from 3.2 to 4.6, a spread that reflects meaningful variation between Chesterfield County's small towns.

The county's largest city, Cheraw (population 4,960), comes in at 4.6/10 and represents the single biggest concentration of rental activity in the county - it also sits among the riskier end of the local range. Pageland (pop. 2,489), the second-largest city, scores 4/10, tracking close to the county average. The county seat, the City of Chesterfield (pop. 1,465), registers 4/10. At the higher-risk end of the local spectrum is Patrick, a small community of 331 residents that records the highest score in the county at 4/10. On the opposite end, Ruby - with just 244 residents - scores the lowest in the county at 3.2/10, a full point below Patrick and offering the most landlord-favorable environment locally. McBee (pop. 818) lands at 4/10 and Jefferson (pop. 737) at 3.4/10.

Underlying these scores is a county economy shaped by persistently high poverty - 27.7% of residents fall below the federal poverty line - and average rents of $733 a month, where renters spend about 32.4 cents of every dollar earned on housing. Those economic pressures drive elevated rent-burden figures that feed into the county's position in the higher-risk third of the state. Still, South Carolina eviction laws's landlord-friendly statewide framework under S.C. Code § 27-40 constrains how high any county's score can realistically climb: the state bars local rent control, requires no just-cause for eviction, and keeps minimum notice periods short. The result is a county that shows genuine financial stress among renters but operates under a legal regime that leaves landlords with comparatively fast and low-cost tools when eviction becomes necessary.

Chesterfield County's 4/10 average reflects a rural rental market where economic hardship - a 27.7% poverty rate and rent burden averaging 32.4% - pushes risk upward even as South Carolina eviction laws's statute framework (no rent control, no just-cause requirement, 5-day pay-or-quit notice) keeps procedural complexity low. The spread from 3.2 to 4.6 across the county's 8 cities shows that local conditions in individual towns can vary by more than a full point from the county figure.