Crime in Charleston, South Carolina
Major crime in Charleston is about the U.S. rate per resident: 11% lower for persons crimes and about the same for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 10.7% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 3.0 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Charleston for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Charleston
The middle half of Charleston residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 40 and 122; the typical (median) resident's is 61. The citywide figure (102) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5037.2%
- 50–10029.6%
- 100–20020.3%
- 200–4009.9%
- 400+3.0%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on Friday and Saturday nights
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 10.7% in a year; across South Carolina it fell 7.5%
Change in expected crimes, with South Carolina as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Charleston against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
151 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Charleston; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Charleston has a higher major-crime index than 7 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, James Island (5 mi), is 53% below Charleston's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Charleston
What are the most common crimes in Charleston?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 830 a year), shoplifting (about 728 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 552 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 3.0 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Charleston's figures add up its 98 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Charleston's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 62.4% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 171,699. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Charleston, South Carolina." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/sc/charleston
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- James Island5 mi48
- North Charleston9 mi187
- Hanahan9 mi58
- Mount Pleasant10 mi63
- Hollywood11 mi90
- Isle of Palms14 mi68
- Goose Creek15 mi79
- Ladson16 mi69