Chester, SC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 342% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Chester, SC shows violent crime at 1,554.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,280.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 342% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
1554.1/100K violent
3280.9/100K property
+342% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Chester, SC
Position in the state cohort
Chester reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable South Carolina cities
At 1554.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Chester ranks 12 of 149 — above 137 of the 148 other South Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +274.8% against the cohort median of 414.6. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Chester's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the South Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Chester's 1554.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Mullins (1586.5), Spartanburg (1480.1), Bamberg (1723.6), Hartsville (1745.8). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 32.1% of the 252 Part I offenses reported in Chester for 2024, against a median of 14.9% across comparable South Carolina cities — a gap of 17.2 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1232.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1554.1 in 2024 (+26.1%). The highest observed value was 2566.1 in 2022 and the lowest 971.8 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 72.5% of reported property offenses in Chester, against a cohort median of 80.6%. The remainder is burglary (30) and motor vehicle theft (17). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Chester'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.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Chester's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.3 Census sq mi, Chester logged 51.8 property and 24.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Chester leans on larceny-theft at 49% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,326.
Violent offenses are 32% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.3 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
+59.9%
971.8 → 1554.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
+2.9%
3187.6 → 3280.9/100K
Property offenses lead Chester's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs SC
Property Crime
171
3280.9
1711
1988.2
Larceny-Theft
124
2379.1
-
-
Burglary
30
575.6
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
17
326.2
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
81
1554.1
352
439.3
Aggravated Assault
67
1285.5
-
-
Rape
6
115.1
-
-
Murder
4
76.7
-
-
Robbery
4
76.7
-
-
Chester Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Chester 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 averages
Chester Police Department
Reporting agency for Chester NIBRS-participating
Chester Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Chester's 252 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 Chester in population. Their populations run from 4,554 to 5,465, against 5,212 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Chester reported 81 violent crimes and 171 property crimes, for a total of 252 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Chester?
From 2023 to 2024, Chester's violent crime rate increased by 59.9%, and the property crime rate increased by 2.9%.
What is the most common crime in Chester?
The most common crime type in Chester is larceny-theft, accounting for 49.2% of all reported crimes (124 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Chester is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Chester, SC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.