BY MAYA BROWN UPDATED AUGUST 12, 2021 07:24 PM
Myrtle Beach has seen rapid population growth over the last decade.
The population count in the city is a total of 35,682 people, a 32% increase from 2010’s count of 27,109 people, according to the federal government’s 2020 Census data released on Thursday. The census shows an increase in the area’s Black, Asian and multi-racial populations. The Black population has grown to 4,712 people in 2020 from 3,764 people. That’s about a 25% increase. The 2020 census shows there was a 30% increase in the non-Hispanic white population, adding 5,517 people to 2010’s count of 18,380 people. There is a total number of 4,259 people in the city that identify as Hispanic, which is up from 3,708 people, a 14.9% increase.
Atlantic Beach, a historically Black town that attracts thousands each year for the Grand Strand’s Black Bike Week, lost nearly half its population in the last decade. The town shrunk from 334 people to just 195. It stands out as one of the very few areas in Horry County that lost population between 2010 and 2020. The decline in Atlantic Beach’s population came primarily from the loss of more than half of its Black population. In 2010, 182 Black people lived in the town. By 2020, that number had fallen to just 88. The town also saw a 78% decline in its Hispanic population, going from 55 people in 2010 to 12 in 2020. The town’s non-Hispanic white population only fell by 17%, or nine people.