Charleston, SC has a C safety grade (47/100) with a violent crime rate of 358 per 100,000, 2% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Charleston, SC Crime Rate & Safety
At 156,898 residents, Charleston is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against SC and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Charleston, SC is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 2% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Charleston, SC shows violent crime at 357.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,021.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 2% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
357.6/100K violent
2021.7/100K property
+2% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Charleston, SC
Comparable rate records
Charleston's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the South Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Charleston's 357.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Cowpens (356.0), Inman (359.9), North Myrtle Beach (360.8), Gaston (366.1). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 470.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 357.6 in 2024 (-23.9%). The highest observed value was 470.0 in 2020 and the lowest 357.6 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Charleston sits mid-pack among comparable South Carolina cities
At 357.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Charleston ranks 84 of 149 — above 65 of the 148 other South Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -14.6% against the cohort median of 418.8. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property counts dominate Charleston's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Charleston's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 115.2 Census sq mi, Charleston logged 27.5 property and 4.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Charleston's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (70% of 3,733 offenses; mix index 5,117).
Violent offenses are 15% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (115.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-11.8%
405.4 → 357.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.5%
1992.1 → 2021.7/100K
Property offenses lead Charleston's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
3,172
2021.7
1711
Larceny-Theft
2,599
1656.5
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
354
225.6
-
Burglary
219
139.6
-
Arson
16
10.2
-
Violent Crime
561
357.6
352
Aggravated Assault
443
282.3
-
Robbery
67
42.7
-
Rape
44
28
-
Murder
7
4.5
-
Charleston Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Charleston property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averagesRead the chart as a list
Charleston: 358 violent, 2022 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Columbia: 770 violent, 3233 property per 100,000 (grade F)
North Charleston: 811 violent, 3956 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Mount Pleasant: 128 violent, 1172 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Rock Hill: 441 violent, 2348 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Greenville: 644 violent, 3468 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Summerville: 222 violent, 1768 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Goose Creek: 257 violent, 1465 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Greer: 344 violent, 1728 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Charleston Police Department
Reporting agency for Charleston NIBRS-participating
Charleston Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Charleston's 3,733 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in South Carolina
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the South Carolina cities closest to Charleston in population. Their populations run from 47,690 to 144,559, against 156,898 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Charleston at 357.6/100K violent and 2,021.7/100K property - matched below outside South Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Charleston reported 561 violent crimes and 3,172 property crimes, for a total of 3,733 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Charleston?
From 2023 to 2024, Charleston's violent crime rate decreased by 11.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.5%.
What is the most common crime in Charleston?
The most common crime type in Charleston is larceny-theft, accounting for 69.6% of all reported crimes (2,599 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Charleston's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Charleston, SC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.