Crime in Columbia, South Carolina
Major crime in Columbia is 2.1 times the U.S. rate per resident: 2.5 times for persons crimes and 2.1 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 5.0% 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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Weapons violations stand out most, at 3.6 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Columbia 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 Columbia
The middle half of Columbia residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 68 and 249; the typical (median) resident's is 182. The citywide figure (214) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5013.2%
- 50–10015.2%
- 100–20030.0%
- 200–40029.2%
- 400+12.4%
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 5.0% 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.
Columbia against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
25 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Columbia; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Columbia has a higher major-crime index than 3 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Forest Acres (1 mi), is 29% below Columbia's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Columbia
What are the most common crimes in Columbia?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 1,440 a year), theft from vehicle (about 1,078 a year) and aggravated assault (about 977 a year). Compared with the U.S., weapons violations stands out most: 3.6 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. Columbia's figures add up its 94 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Columbia has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 97.6% 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: 155,222. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Columbia, South Carolina." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/sc/columbia
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Forest Acres1 mi151
- Woodfield4 mi159
- Dentsville5 mi280
- West Columbia6 mi237
- Capitol View6 mi218
- Cayce6 mi174
- St. Andrews7 mi253
- Seven Oaks9 mi227