The Safest and Most Dangerous Cities in South Carolina

South Carolina Cities With the Highest Crime

Allendale has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest violent crime rate in the state ― with a 69% increase in violent crimes from the prior year.¹ It’s also the namesake of the county, which holds the second-highest violent crime rate among counties in South Carolina.

Estill, located 20 miles south of Allendale, ranks second in violent crime. With 2,006 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, the town falls in the worst 10% of cities for violent crime nationwide.² That equates to a one-in-50 chance of being a victim in Estill.

When it comes to property crimes, ironically, Union is the worst town in the state. Contrary to its namesake, the city has not been very friendly to its fellow inhabitants. Here, people have a one-in-12 chance of being a victim of property crime. Union also ranks among the highest nationally for motor vehicle thefts.

Walterboro ranks second-worst in terms of property crime rates, following close behind Union, with a one in 14 chance of being a victim.

Typically, larger populations lead to higher crime rates, which is why cities usually appear to be more dangerous than small towns statistically. However, that is not the case with South Carolina. The state’s cities and biggest towns, such as Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and Charleston, are not near the top of these lists, even with their influx of tourists.

Lexington is a suburb of Columbia, the second-largest city in the state and yet it boasts the second-lowest violent and the lowest property crime rates.

Instead, the most crime-ridden communities are smaller, more rural towns. Union, for instance, ranks just 211th in population statewide, with fewer than 1,800 residents. Yet it faces crime challenges far greater than its size would suggest.

South Carolina Cities With the Lowest Crime

On the other end of the spectrum, Lyman, nestled between Greenville and Spartanburg in upstate South Carolina, is the least violent town in the state. With a population of roughly 6,000, Lyman boasts a crime rate that is more than 50% below the national average.

Lexington, a centralized, growing suburb just outside the state’s capital, Columbia, also has incredibly low violent crime rates. But that hasn’t always been the case. The town reported a violent crime rate of 16 per 100,000 residents, after slashing that number by a staggering 31% from the year prior, according to FBI figures. This vast improvement has been credited to proactive policing and strong community outreach.

Lexington also leads the state in property crime prevention. With only 92 crimes per 100,000 residents, a 21% decrease from the year prior, it far outpaces other towns.

For example, there’s a large gap between Lexington and Saluda, the second-safest South Carolina town for property crimes, which holds a much higher rate of 495 crimes per 100,000 residents. This is more than five times as many as Lexington.

How Is the Crime Rate in South Carolina Compared to Other States?

While South Carolina has been ranked by some as the fourth-best state for golf,³ and the 17th best for vacation,⁴ it also ranks eighth-worst for Violent Crimes and 11th-worst for property crime.

The violent crime rate of 471 per 100,000 people is 29% higher than the national average while the property crime rate of 2,193 per 100,000 people is also 14% higher.

This comes despite improvements from the previous year, with violent crimes decreasing by 4% and property crime by 5%. Still, South Carolina has a long way to go.

Aggravated assault, the most common crime in the state, occurs 46% more frequently than the rest of the country. Meanwhile murder rate, at nine per 100,000 residents, is 58% higher than the United States average while larceny-theft and burglary also outpace the national rate by 20% and 28%, respectively.

Why Is South Carolina’s Crime Rate So High?

It’s not population driving crime in South Carolina but poverty. As alluded to prior, the most dangerous towns in South Carolina are not the most populated but the opposite. However, the same cannot be said for poverty.

As solicitor David Pascoe of the First Judicial Circuit explained, four of the top five most violent counties in South Carolina are among the poorest counties in the state.⁵ These counties report poverty rates that rank between 24%-37%, according to the latest available data from the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

Allendale County, the second most violent county, also has the highest poverty rate in the state at 37%.⁵ Therefore, it’s little surprise that the town of Allendale consistently ranks near the top of the crime rates.

Conversely, it’s no surprise that the towns with the lowest crime rates also have the lowest poverty rates as well. This underlines a clear connection between economic stability and public safety. The two metrics go together like woods and irons on the golf course.

To improve these numbers, Pascoe advocates that the state needs to “get tough on guns and on assaults and not worry about emptying the jails, but to fill them up with dangerous criminals.”

However, the state’s approach might raise some contradictions as South Carolina is the only U.S. state that still incarcerates juveniles for noncriminal offenses, such as skipping school. Many argue that this practice may lead to long-term harm and contribute to criminal behavior, therefore feeding a cycle the state has been struggling to break.

Where Our Crime Data Comes From

Unless specified otherwise, the information in this article is based on crime data compiled by the FBI and made available through the Crime Data Explorer. Statewide violent and property crime statistics are drawn from the FBI’s 2023 Crime in the United States Report (Table 5) and, for city-level crime rates, we referred to Table 8, which lists reported offenses by state and city.

Important note: Crime statistics offer valuable insights, but they aren’t the only way to evaluate a community’s safety. Local context, law enforcement practices and reporting standards can all influence how crime is recorded. Additionally, FBI publication tables and the data displayed on the Crime Data Explorer may differ slightly due to variations in methodology.