Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 26,686 at the 2010 census, and the city was the center of an urbanized area of 75,702. It is one of the principal cities in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin metropolitan statistical area, which had a population of 824,112 at the 2010 census. It is further included in the larger Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina combined statistical area, with a total population of 1,266,995, at the 2010 census. It is just off Interstate 85 and is 120 miles from Atlanta and 140 miles from Charlotte. Anderson is the smallest of the three primary cities that make up the Upstate region, and is nicknamed the "Electric City" and the "Friendliest City in South Carolina". Anderson is the home of Anderson University, a selective private comprehensive university of roughly 3,900 undergraduate and graduate students.