Columbia, the first city in America named for Christopher Columbus was founded March 26, 1786, as the center of government, education, and commerce in the Palmetto State. Today, the Columbia Metropolitan Area is home to over 200 years of history, beautiful Lake Murray, the University of South Carolina, the Army’s largest training base, numerous festivals and recreational opportunities.

Columbia is the capital of and largest city of South Carolina. Columbia is located in the geographic center of South Carolina. The Columbia Metro area, known as the Midlands, is within a three hour drive from anywhere in South Carolina. The Columbia Metropolitan Airport is served by 4 major airlines.

The Columbia economy is well diversified with a rich mix of retail, manufacturing and service companies.   The major employers in the area being South Carolina state government, the Palmetto Health hospital system, Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC, and the University of South Carolina. Columbia’s economy is set to be revolutionized within the next few years with the establishment of the University of South Carolina’s research campus, dubbed Innovista. Spreading out over 200 acres in the historic Congaree Vista district downtown and combining 5 million square feet of research labs, office space, mixed-use retail and affordable residential housing, research will be aimed at the emerging technologies and intellectual clusters—biomedical, environmental, nanotechnology, and future fuels—that companies will find extremely valuable in the global economy.

A leading international research firm specializing in living costs reports that Columbia is the least expensive city in the Southeast in which to buy goods and services according to a survey of approximately 400 U.S. cities. A market basket survey of more than 200 items found that Columbia’s costs were nearly 6% below the national median and nearly 40% lower than New York City, the nation’s most expensive city. Only 5 U.S. cities were less expensive than Columbia.