Sumter County Courthouse · Photo: The original uploader was Pollinator at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0Sumter reports more crime per resident than 96% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Sumter’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D− for safety: #61 of 87 graded towns in 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 Sumter
Among South Carolina towns, closer to the middle
South Carolina’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Sumter’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 30% of the 87 South Carolina towns we grade, against 4% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
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 Sumter’s 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.
Reported crime is falling
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.
Show as a table
| Year | Sumter property | Rest of South Carolina property | Sumter violent | Rest of South Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.2 | 31.0 | 8.8 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 39.5 | 30.2 | 8.9 | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 37.1 | 27.5 | 11.0 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 27.3 | 23.6 | 7.1 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Sumter’s police reported 1,146 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 9.0 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Sumter | Rest of South Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.8 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 8.9 | 5.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 11.0 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 7.1 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 27 property crimes reported
And about 7 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
1,473 crimes reported in 2025
303 violent and 1,170 property, as reported to the FBI by Sumter’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
35 people died in crashes on Sumter’s roads in 2019–2023
Sumter had 35 fatal crashes in five years, in which 35 people died; 9 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is 16.3 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for South Carolina towns of 25,000–100,000 people (8.8, 20 towns).
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.
Sumter and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sumter | D− | 9.0 | 34.6 |
| South Sumter | — | — | — |
| Lakewood | — | — | — |
| Cherryvale | — | — | — |
| Cane Savannah | — | — | — |
| Oakland | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. South Sumter, Lakewood, Cherryvale, Cane Savannah and Oakland are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
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 Sumter. 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 Sumter’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (42,838 in 2025); our figure for Sumter is 43,094 (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 Sumter
Is Sumter, SC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Sumter reports more crime per resident than 96% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade and #61 of 87 in South Carolina. Its police reported 9.0 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Sumter?
9.0 violent and 34.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of South Carolina reports 5.1 and 27.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Sumter?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Sumter in 2025?
Sumter’s police reported 4 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 9.3 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Sumter?
Sumter’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sumter”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Sumter.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.