Nikki Haley to rule largely white South Carolina

South Carolina, the southern US state that Republican Nikki Haley, a daughter of Sikh immigrant parents from Amritsar is set to rule as the new governor, has a surprisingly sparse population of Indian Americans.

According to the 2000 census there were only 8,356 Indians among 36,014 (0.9 percent) Asians in a total population of 4,012,012, 67.2 percent of them White and 29.5 percent Black. The state’s estimated population in 2009 was 4,561,242 and ranked 24th among the US states.

Bordering Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north, South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown.

Once primarily agricultural, South Carolina today has many large textile and other mills that produce several times the output of its farms in cash value. Charleston makes asbestos, wood, pulp, steel products, chemicals, machinery, and apparel. Farms have become fewer but larger in recent years. South Carolina ranks third in peach production; it ranks fourth in overall tobacco production.

Other top agricultural commodities include nursery and greenhouse products, watermelons, peanuts, broilers and turkeys, and cattle and calves.

The only commercial tea plantation in America is 20 miles south of Charleston on Wadmalaw Island.

Key Facts:

Capital: Columbia

Nickname: Palmetto State

10 largest cities (2005 est.): Columbia, 117,088; Charleston, 106,712; North Charleston, 86,313; Rock Hill, 59,554; Mount Pleasant, 57,932; Greenville, 56,676; Sumter, 39,679; Spartanburg, 38,379; Summerville, 37,714; Hilton Head Island, 34,497