Surfside Beach reports more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Surfside Beach’s police in 2023–2025, it grades C for safety: #25 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 Surfside Beach
Among South Carolina towns, closer to the middle
South Carolina’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Surfside Beach’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 71% of the 87 South Carolina towns we grade, against 34% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Surfside Beach has 2,788 jobs based in town for 4,392 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Surfside Beach’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; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its violent rate (2.1) 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Surfside Beach’s police reported 28 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.2 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Surfside Beach | Rest of South Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.3 | 5.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.6 | 5.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.3 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 16 property crimes reported
And about 3 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.
Reported crime is steady
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of South Carolina.
Show as a table
| Year | Surfside Beach property | Rest of South Carolina property | Surfside Beach violent | Rest of South Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 35.3 | 31.1 | 2.3 | 5.8 |
| 2023 | 19.4 | 30.4 | 1.6 | 5.6 |
| 2024 | 18.5 | 27.8 | 2.3 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 15.6 | 23.7 | 2.5 | 4.5 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
80 crimes reported in 2025
11 violent and 69 property, as reported to the FBI by Surfside Beach’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
No one died in a crash on Surfside Beach’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 Surfside Beach’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Surfside Beach’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.
Surfside Beach and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfside Beach | C | 2.1 | 17.8 |
| Garden City | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Garden City is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
South Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfside Beach | C | 2.1 | 17.8 |
| Walhalla | B | 2.3 | 7.5 |
| Isle of Palms | C+ | 2.4 | 12.4 |
| Duncan | C+ | 2.9 | 14.0 |
| Williamston | D | 5.5 | 22.5 |
| Barnwell | D− | 9.4 | 37.8 |
The five graded South Carolina towns closest to Surfside Beach’s population (4,392), by grade.
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 Surfside Beach. 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 Surfside Beach’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,422 in 2025); our figure for Surfside Beach is 4,392 (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 Surfside Beach
Is Surfside Beach, SC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Surfside Beach reports more crime per resident than 66% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #25 of 87 in South Carolina. Its police reported 2.1 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 Surfside Beach?
2.1 violent and 17.8 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.
Is crime going up or down in Surfside Beach?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Surfside Beach?
Surfside Beach’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Surfside Beach”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Surfside Beach.
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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.