Sumter, SC carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 212% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Sumter, SC shows violent crime at 1,097.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,706.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 212% 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
1097.5/100K violent
3706.1/100K property
+212% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Sumter, SC
Comparable rate records
Sumter's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the South Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Sumter's 1097.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Myrtle Beach (1111.6), Darlington (1130.9), Lancaster (1063.9), Clio (1043.5). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Sumter reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable South Carolina cities
At 1097.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Sumter ranks 23 of 149 — above 126 of the 148 other South Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +164.7% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 22.8% of the 2,044 Part I offenses reported in Sumter for 2024, against a median of 14.9% across comparable South Carolina cities — a gap of 8.0 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1231.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1097.5 in 2024 (-10.9%). The highest observed value was 1231.6 in 2020 and the lowest 847.2 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Sumter'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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Sumter's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 33.1 Census sq mi, Sumter logged 47.6 property and 14.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Sumter's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (60% of 2,044 offenses; mix index 4,158).
Violent offenses are 23% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (33.1 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
+25.2%
876.7 → 1097.5/100K
Property Crime Rate
-6%
3943 → 3706.1/100K
Property offenses lead Sumter's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs SC
Property Crime
1,577
3706.1
1711
1988.2
Larceny-Theft
1,223
2874.2
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
209
491.2
-
-
Burglary
145
340.8
-
-
Arson
4
9.4
-
-
Violent Crime
467
1097.5
352
439.3
Aggravated Assault
419
984.7
-
-
Robbery
28
65.8
-
-
Murder
10
23.5
-
-
Rape
10
23.5
-
-
Sumter Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Sumter property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Sumter Police Department
Reporting agency for Sumter NIBRS-participating
Sumter Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Sumter's 2,044 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 Sumter in population. Their populations run from 33,221 to 50,294, against 42,551 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Sumter at 1,097.5/100K violent and 3,706.1/100K property - matched below outside South Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Sumter reported 467 violent crimes and 1,577 property crimes, for a total of 2,044 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Sumter?
From 2023 to 2024, Sumter's violent crime rate increased by 25.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 6%.
What is the most common crime in Sumter?
The most common crime type in Sumter is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.8% of all reported crimes (1,223 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Sumter figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Sumter, SC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.