Laurel Bay, South Carolina
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1978. It stands in the Beaufort-Port Royal census division. It lies in ZIP code area 29906. The Survey maps it on the Laurel Bay quadrangle. 5,082 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 36 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLaurel Bay fell from 5,891 to 5,082 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5,891 | |
| 2020 | 5,082 | -809 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 15 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1920 USGS Okatie quadrangle1:62500
- 1942 USGS Okatie quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Savannah quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Savannah quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Savannah quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Savannah quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Savannah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Laurel Bay quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Beaufort quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
156 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 156 fires within 5 miles of Laurel Bay between 1992 and 2020, burning about 575 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 30 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 58 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 30 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 15 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 13 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 6 August 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 6 August 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 14 August 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 4 July 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 July 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 29 July 2006 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
4 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Laurel Bay in 4 storm reports between 2006 and 2024: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Laurel Bay | $5,000 | The Beaufort Gazette Newspaper reported a few trees down and damage to a home in Laurel Bay. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Laurel Bay | - | Beaufort County Emergency Management reported a tree down near the intersections of Joe Frazier Road and Laurel Bay Road, Robert Smalls Parkway and Parris Island Gateway, Agnes Major Road and Cuthbert Farm Road, and a tree down on Young Circle. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Laurel Bay | - | One tree blown down on Rugrack Road about a quarter of a mile from Highway 116. |
| June 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Laurel Bay | - | Emergency Manager reports brief touchdown with no damage. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irongate | 0.7 miles | 15 | |
| Capehart Housing Project | 1.0 miles | 15 | |
| Pinewood | 1.1 miles | 15 | |
| White Oaks | 2.2 miles | 15 | |
| Peace Haven | 2.3 miles | 19 | |
| Roseida | 2.5 miles | 19 | |
| Broad River Bluff | 2.6 miles | 15 | |
| Colonial Heights | 2.8 miles | 19 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Laurel Bay | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1810605 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1227789. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








