The Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of the two southernmost counties in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina, centered on the town of Hilton Head Island. As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 187,010. 2016 population estimates show the MSA to have grown to 211,614. Prior to March 2013, the region was considered a Micropolitan Statistical Area.