Bluffton, South Carolina Facts

Bluffton is in the southeastern corner of South Carolina, in the Lowcountry. Bluffton is in what county? Beaufort County, the same county as Hilton Head Island, Beaufort and Daufuskie Island. The town sits on the mainland, on a bluff above the north bank of the May River, and Hilton Head is the sea island to its east, reached over the bridges on US 278.

From Old Town it is about 15 miles to Coligny Beach on Hilton Head, about 24 miles to downtown Savannah, Georgia, and about 28 miles to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. Those are road miles and the drives run 25, 40 and 45 minutes in light traffic, longer at summer-weekend rush hours on the bridges. Our Bluffton to Savannah guide has both routes, and the Bluffton guide shows the town neighborhood by neighborhood.

The Bluffton population was counted by the Census Bureau at 27,703 in April 2020 and estimated at 36,146 by 2024, which makes Bluffton one of the faster-growing towns in the state: about 8,400 more residents in four years. So Bluffton SC population is now well past 36,000, and the town’s population figure keeps moving with each yearly estimate.

The town is also far bigger than it was. Bluffton was about one square mile until 1998, when it annexed Palmetto Bluff and the Shults Tract, and it annexed more land, including Buckwalter, in 2000. It now covers more than 50 square miles, which is why “Bluffton” on a map runs from Old Town’s oaks out to Palmetto Bluff and the master-planned communities along US 278 and SC 170. Mail addressed to Bluffton also covers areas the town does not: see the Bluffton zip codes page.

Ask what Bluffton, SC is known for and the answer is Old Town: a few blocks of galleries, restaurants and shops under live oaks, running down Calhoun Street to the May River. The river is the second answer. Its oysters, its dolphins and its low-tide sandbar are the reasons Bluffton has a reputation for good seafood and easy days on the water.

Then there is what surrounds it: Palmetto Bluff, the resort and residential community on the river, golf courses on both sides of the parkway, and a dining scene that has grown with the town. Bluffton has no ocean beach; the Bluffton beaches page explains what it has instead.

Bluffton Parkway, also written Bluffton Pkwy, is the main east-west road across the south side of town. It runs parallel to US 278 (Fording Island Road), the older highway lined with shopping centers, and locals use it to skip the traffic lights on 278. If you search Bluffton Parkway, SC on a map, it is the road that connects the communities on SC 170 to the ones nearer the Hilton Head bridges. Old Town itself is off SC 46 (May River Road), a few minutes from either.

Three fun facts about South Carolina, taken from this corner of it. The May River is an Outstanding Resource Water, the state’s own designation, and its oysters are the reason the Bluffton Oyster Company has shucked by hand since 1899. Bluffton was about one square mile in 1997 and is now more than fifty. And the town has no ocean beach at all, but a sandbar that appears in the middle of a river twice a day.