Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0For violent crime, St. Matthews trails 88% of U.S. towns per resident
Overall, St. Matthews grades C− for safety: more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Violence and property crime split as 4.9 violent crimes and 15.5 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 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’s behind St. Matthews’ 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 property rate (15.5) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Crime in St. Matthews 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 5 violent crimes, 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 | St. Matthews | Rest of South Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 6.6 | 5.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.3 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.9 | 4.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
St. Matthews’ police reported 27 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.2 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | St. Matthews property | Rest of South Carolina property | St. Matthews violent | Rest of South Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 19.1 | 30.4 | 6.6 | 5.6 |
| 2024 | 14.3 | 27.8 | 3.3 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 13.1 | 23.7 | 4.9 | 4.5 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2023–2025, against the rest of South Carolina.
33 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.
9 violent and 24 property, as reported to the FBI by St. Matthews’ police.
No one died in a crash on St. Matthews’s roads in 2019–2023
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 St. Matthews’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so St. Matthews’s own rate (0.0) 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.
St. Matthews and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Matthews | C− | 4.9 | 15.5 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
South Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Matthews | C− | 4.9 | 15.5 |
| Sullivan's Island | B+ | 0.2 | 9.5 |
| Chapin | C+ | 2.4 | 15.8 |
| Blacksburg | C | 2.9 | 17.8 |
| Elgin | D− | 5.1 | 50.7 |
| Estill | D− | 17.7 | 25.9 |
The five graded South Carolina towns closest to St. Matthews’ population (1,827), 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 St. Matthews. 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 St. Matthews’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (1,830 in 2025); our figure for St. Matthews is 1,827 (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 St. Matthews
Is St. Matthews, SC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, St. Matthews reports more crime per resident than 79% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade. Its police reported 4.9 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 St. Matthews?
4.9 violent and 15.5 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 St. Matthews?
St. Matthews’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “St. Matthews”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in St. Matthews.
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.