Cowpens Depot · Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0In Cowpens, the kinds of crime the grade counts fell 50% per resident from 2023 to 2025
It has more violent crime than 77% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 76%. Year on year, 3.4 violent crimes and 19.1 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 5.2 and 27.3 in the rest of South Carolina.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of SC” is every other South Carolina city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Cowpens
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Cowpens’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are higher than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its violent rate (3.4) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Cowpens property | Rest of South Carolina property | Cowpens violent | Rest of South Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 28.5 | 31.1 | 1.9 | 5.8 |
| 2023 | 27.6 | 30.4 | 5.5 | 5.6 |
| 2024 | 14.7 | 27.8 | 3.6 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 15.3 | 23.7 | 1.3 | 4.5 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of South Carolina.
Crime in Cowpens per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Cowpens | Rest of South Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.9 | 5.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.6 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.3 | 4.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Cowpens’ police reported 23 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.2 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
38 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
3 violent and 35 property, as reported to the FBI by Cowpens’ police.
Two people died in crashes on Cowpens’s roads in 2019–2023
Cowpens had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is about what is typical for South Carolina towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (9.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Cowpens’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Cowpens’s own rate (21.7) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Cowpens and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cowpens | C− | 3.4 | 19.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
South Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cowpens | C− | 3.4 | 19.1 |
| Pine Ridge | A− | 0.6 | 7.7 |
| New Ellenton | C+ | 2.1 | 14.6 |
| South Congaree | C | 2.5 | 18.0 |
| Timmonsville | D | 8.9 | 24.3 |
| Allendale | D− | 19.5 | 32.7 |
The five graded South Carolina towns closest to Cowpens’ population (2,257), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Cowpens. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Cowpens’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (2,283 in 2025); our figure for Cowpens is 2,257 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Cowpens
Is Cowpens, SC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Cowpens reports more crime per resident than 77% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade. Its police reported 3.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.2 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Cowpens?
3.4 violent and 19.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of South Carolina reports 5.2 and 27.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Cowpens?
Cowpens’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Cowpens”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Cowpens.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.