The Situation Analyses were written for counties by the South Carolina State Development Board's Office of Rural & Community Development, often in conjunction with county economic agencies. The purpose of the analysis is to give citizens participating in the county's strategic management process a better understanding of the county's strengths and weaknesses in relation to its neighboring counties and the state in a wide array of areas that pertain to the ability to attract and retain industry.

Each report provides a variety of statistics and analysis about the county on topics such as population, health care, infrastructure, economic development, agriculture, retail sales, income, and public education. The Digital Collection has Situational Analyses for 7 counties,with publication dates between 1990 and 1993.