South Carolina: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Statewide Crime Trends in South Carolina

Orangeburg, Clinton, Hartsville, Myrtle Beach, Camden, and Union are some of the state's most dangerous cities in terms of violent crime.

However, Chester, South Carolina, a city of just over 5,000 residents, is the most violent city in the state; it has a violent crime rate of 2,566 per 100,000. Safer cities in South Carolina include Travelers Rest, Central, Tega Cay, Bluffton, and Due West.

Criminal justice and social science researchers have long sought to find correlations between income and poverty in the U.S. and other regions throughout the world. South Carolina ranks 37th for per capita income among the 50 states and has a poverty rate of 14 percent, making it the 10th poorest state in the U.S. However, according to some models, it is not necessarily poverty but rather income inequality that correlates with violent crime.

Either way, criminals looking to cause damage to or steal from home residences can be intercepted, intimidated, and warded off by simple home security measures.

Property Crime in South Carolina

Property crime in South Carolina ranks the Palmetto State 12th (behind Oklahoma and ahead of Tennessee) in the U.S. for home-invasion burglaries, major property theft, and motor vehicle car theft by the most recent federal data.

During the most recent period for which federal data is available, South Carolina's larceny theft rate per 100,000 is 1,706; its burglary rate is 353; and its motor vehicle rate is 249.

The worst cities for property crime in South Carolina were Dillion (with a property crime rate of 8,015 per 100K), Walterboro (with a rate of 7,309), and Manning (with a rate of 7,258).

The safest cities in South Carolina were Due West and Burnettown, with property crime rates of 251 and 534 per 100K, respectively.

Violent Crime in South Carolina

South Carolina’s violent crime rate is 29 percent higher than the national average, with 491 such crimes committed annually in its cities and towns per 100,000 people.

The murder and non-negligent homicide rate is 11 per 100K; the rape rate is 38 per 100K; the robbery rate is 41 per 100K; and the aggravated assault rate is 401.

South Carolina's most violent cities by violent crime rate, according to the FBI/local police data, are Chester, Dillon, and Estill.

The cities with the lowest violent crime rates are Travelers Rest, Central, and Tega Cay. Charleston, with a violent crime rate of 375, was also safer than the South Carolina average.

Our Data

Our data comes from comprehensive reporting compiled by the FBI and accessed via the Crime Data Explorer website. Property and violent crime state figures were drawn from Table 5 of the 2022 Crime in the U.S. Report. Metropolitan figures were found in Table 6, Crime in the U.S. by Metropolitan Statistical Area. City-level figures were drawn from Table 8, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement by State by City. The population figures in that table are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1, 2020.

Limitations: According to the FBI, the data in the publication tables may differ from those released on the Explorer Pages of the CDE. These variations are due to the difference in methodologies between the publication tables and data displayed on the CDE. Please note that crime statistics are not the sole measure of a city’s safety.