SafeWise has released its sixth annual Safest Cities report.
South Carolina expresses a higher level of concern about safety than most other states. That could be due to higher statewide crime rates than national averages, but the safest cities in South Carolina are leading the way with fewer incidents of both violent and property crime. 52% of the South Carolina residents who participated in our 2020 State of Safety study reported feeling high or very high concern for their safety every day. That’s six percentage points higher than the national average.
Higher crime rates and more reports of personal experience with property crime could be reasons there’s more general worry in the Palmetto State.
South Carolina has the third-highest number of people who’ve been affected by property crime in the past 12 months (37% compared to the national average of 26%). The state’s property crime rate is 30.2 incidents per 1,000 people, which is eight points higher than the national rate of 22.0.
When it comes to violent crime, South Carolina has one of the lowest numbers of people who say they’ve been affected by violent crime in the past year (5% versus the national average of 12%). That’s a decrease of two percentage points from last year. But the state’s violent crime rate of 4.9 is still above the national rate of 3.7 incidents per 1,000.
Mauldin made the top ten safest cities, ranking number eight on the list. With a population of just over 25,000, the violent crime rate fell compared to last year from 2.5 to 1.7. The property crime rate was 17.3, lower than the national property rate of 22.0.
90% of the cities had violent crime rates that are lower than the national rate of 3.7 and 100% are lower than the state rate of 4.9. Sixteen cities (80%) beat the national property crime (22.0) rate and 85% beat the state rate (30.2). Five cities reported fewer than 100 total property crimes.
