Gaffney is a city in and the county seat of Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States, in the state's Upstate region. The population was 12,968 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Gaffney, South Carolina, Micropolitan Statistical Area (population 52,537 according to year 2000 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau), an µSA which includes all of Cherokee County and which is further included in the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area (population 1,185,534 according to year 2005 U.S. Census Bureau estimates).