Certificate or Statement

The death certificates page of the South Carolina Department of Public Health, updated September 14, 2026, draws a line most states draw differently: immediate family members of the decedent, or the legal representative of an immediate family member, may obtain a certified copy of the death certificate, and other applicants may be given a statement that the death occurred, with the date and county, but not the certificate. Within the family there are two certificates. The long certificate contains everything including the cause of death; the short certificate leaves out the cause but keeps the manner of death. Only an immediate family member may order through the online vendors.

Fees follow the clock. The fees page sets the records search at $12 per record, which pays for one certified copy when the record is found and is kept when it is not, and since October 1, 2023 adds a $5 expedite fee to every service with a turnaround of ten business days or less, so an in person, online or phone order costs $17 while mail stays at $12 with no expedite option. Additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time are $3 each. Any Vital Records office in the state can issue a death certificate from any county, and the office at 2600 Bull Street in Columbia aims for same day service in 30 to 45 minutes.

  • $12 or $17: a mailed search costs $12 and takes about four weeks; in person, online and phone orders carry a $5 expedite fee for $17 and take 30 to 45 minutes or 5 to 7 business days.
  • $3 extra copies: each additional copy of the same record ordered at the same time costs $3, one of the lowest add-on prices in the country.
  • Statement for outsiders: anyone outside the immediate family gets a death statement with the name, county and date of death rather than a certificate.
  • Late filing penalty: a certificate filed more than five days after the death draws a penalty of $250 or a warning letter for the first day late under Section 44-63-74.

Written by SearchSystems.net from South Carolina's own systems: the South Carolina Department of Public Health death certificates page, the department's vital records fees page, the department's death indexes and genealogy page, the department's average processing times page, the department's page on late filing of death certificates, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

In person at Columbia or a regional office

An applicant brings the completed death application, a valid government, school or employer issued photo identification and the $17 expedited search fee, plus $3 for each additional copy, paid in exact cash, a money order or a cashier's check made out to S.C. DPH; the fees page adds that the counters also take credit and debit cards and cash in bills no larger than $50. The State Vital Records Office at 2600 Bull Street, Columbia, is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and reached at (803) 898-3630, and it and the regional offices issue long and short death certificates and death statements for deaths from 2005 to the present and can start corrections.

Mondays, Fridays and lunch hours are the busy times; the office names 9 to 11 a.m., Tuesday to Thursday, as the quiet hours, and asks anyone needing a correction to arrive before 4 p.m.

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By mail or the Columbia drop-off

A mailed request is accepted only at the state office: S.C. Department of Public Health, Vital Records Section, P.O. Box 2046, West Columbia, SC 29171, with the application, the $12 standard search fee that includes one copy, $3 for each extra copy, and a copy of photo identification. The page is blunt that an application arriving without proper identification is rejected automatically and not processed. Average processing is four weeks, and the processing times page gives 2 to 4 weeks.

A drop-off at the Richland County office is the hybrid: the applicant chooses the $12 four week service or the $17 expedited service of five business days or less, receives a receipt, and has the certificate mailed or held for pickup in Columbia.

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Online and phone vendors and their fees

Two approved vendors take online orders, and the department says it cannot guarantee that orders from other websites will be processed. Go Certificates charges the $17 state expedited fee, $3 per extra copy and an $8.70 processing fee, with extra vendor fees for additional copies, and averages 5 to 7 business days. VitalChek charges the same state fees plus $8.75, offers next day signature required delivery for more, and runs an online identity check that can help an applicant who has no identification, with an upload of a valid card required if the check fails.

Phone orders go to VitalChek at 1-877-284-1008, around the clock, with a $12.85 service charge on top of the state fees. Every vendor order is paid by major credit or debit card, and only an immediate family member may use these routes for a death certificate.

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Deaths before 2005 and the 1915 to 1967 indexes

The regional offices and the Columbia counter issue certificates for deaths from 2005 forward, so an older record is a mail or drop-off request to the state office. For research, the death indexes page links the department's death index log files for 1915 through 1967, with a key to the cause of death codes used in them, and notes that the South Carolina Department of Archives and History keeps records of deaths from 1915 to 1963 on microfiche index and microfilm in its reference room at 8301 Parklane Road in Columbia.

State registration of deaths in South Carolina begins with 1915, which is where both the index and the archive start.

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Corrections, amendments and the court order route

A correction applies when the family gave the funeral home the right information and it was entered wrongly, and the request comes within one year of the death; the office checks the original worksheet and fixes the record without the amendment process. An administrative amendment covers everything else, including any change after a year, and needs evidence such as a birth certificate, a marriage license or a motor vehicle record; once an amendment specialist approves it, an affidavit is prepared and the fees collected: the $12 search fee with one copy, $3 per extra copy and a $15 amendment fee, with all old certificates returned.

A court ordered amendment is required when evidence is missing, when the item was amended before, or when the change is legal rather than corrective. Medical information, including the cause of death, is changed only by the medical certifier or the county coroner. Since November 17, 2025 the Richland County office no longer completes amendments the same day; most are finished in one or two business days by the central amendment team, and court ordered ones take up to two weeks.

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The five day filing rule and natural burials

Since 2015, Section 44-63-74 has required a death certificate to be filed within five days of the death, with the funeral director gathering the demographic facts and the medical certifier given 48 hours, weekends and holidays excluded, to certify the cause. The late filing page explains that the department decides whether the funeral director or the certifier is at fault and assesses a penalty for each day beyond the deadline, starting at $250 or a warning letter for the first day.

Filing has been electronic since the General Assembly passed H3325 in 2022. A family that handles a burial itself without a funeral home, which the state calls a natural burial, files the certificate in the funeral director's place with help from the department at (803) 898-3409, after obtaining the burial removal transit permit from the coroner or the facility where the death occurred.

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Presumptive and delayed deaths

A death registered more than a year after it happened is a delayed death, rare and certified by the original funeral home and medical certifier, while a presumptive death, where no body was found and the person has usually been missing five years or more, always needs a certified court order declaring the death. In either case the family first orders the certificate normally so the office can issue a Not Found Letter, then returns with the order; a $15 filing fee applies on top of the copy fees, and the department asks to be made a party to any presumptive death case.

Estates and those court actions run through the probate and circuit courts covered in the South Carolina court records guide, and land left behind through the registers of deeds under South Carolina property records.

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The birth side and the public records law

The same offices issue birth certificates under their own eligibility rules, set out in the South Carolina birth certificates guide. Because a death certificate is restricted to immediate family by the vital records statute, the Freedom of Information Act does not open it, though the death statement available to anyone serves most third party needs; the South Carolina public records law guide covers what that act does reach, and the South Carolina county pages list the coroners and the regional offices.

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Questions about South Carolina death records

Who can get a South Carolina death certificate?
Immediate family members of the decedent or the legal representative of an immediate family member. Anyone else may receive a death statement showing the name, county and date of death.
How much does it cost?
A $12 search fee by mail or a $17 expedited fee in person, online, by phone or by expedited drop-off, each including one certified copy, plus $3 for each additional copy and the vendor's charge for online or phone orders.
What is the difference between the long and short certificate?
The long certificate includes the cause of death; the short certificate omits the cause but shows the manner of death.
Is same day pickup possible in South Carolina?
Usually, at the Columbia office or a regional office, in about 30 to 45 minutes, for a death from 2005 onward, with exact payment and a completed form.
Where are older South Carolina death records?
Deaths from 1915 to 1967 are indexed in the department's online death index files, and the Department of Archives and History holds 1915 to 1963 deaths on microfilm; certificates for deaths before 2005 are ordered from the state office by mail.
How is a mistake on a death certificate fixed?
Within a year, as a correction checked against the funeral home worksheet; otherwise as an administrative amendment with evidence and a $15 fee plus the $12 search, or by court order, with medical facts changed only by the certifier or coroner.

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South Carolina readers can turn to the South Carolina birth certificates guide, the probate courts under South Carolina court records, the registers of deeds under South Carolina property records, the Freedom of Information Act under South Carolina public records law, and the coroners and regional offices on the South Carolina county pages.