Photo: User:Corvokarasu · Public domainSouth Hill sees more crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns
It has more violent crime than 84% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 94%. Add to that, on the record of crimes South Hill’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it takes D for safety: #75 of 84 graded towns in Virginia. Police counts work out at 4.2 violent crimes and 34.4 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Virginia they are 3.3 and 22.6.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of VA” is every other Virginia 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 South Hill
A job center
South Hill has 4,000 jobs based in town for 4,889 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 South Hill’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.
Crime in South Hill 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 | South Hill | Rest of Virginia | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.7 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.8 | 3.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
South Hill’s police reported 62 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Virginia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | South Hill property | Rest of Virginia property | South Hill violent | Rest of Virginia violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 41.0 | 25.2 | 5.7 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 40.1 | 24.4 | 3.8 | 3.5 |
| 2024 | 35.0 | 23.2 | 4.0 | 3.3 |
| 2025 | 28.3 | 20.2 | 4.8 | 3.2 |
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, 2022–2025, against the rest of Virginia.
165 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.
24 violent and 141 property, as reported to the FBI by South Hill’s police.
Six people died in crashes on South Hill’s roads in 2019–2023
South Hill had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which six people died. Most of these deaths (3 of 6) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is more than is typical for Virginia towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (4.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of South Hill’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so South Hill’s own rate (25.1) 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.
South Hill and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Hill | D | 4.2 | 34.4 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Virginia towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Hill | D | 4.2 | 34.4 |
| Berryville | A | 0.2 | 5.1 |
| Luray | B− | 1.6 | 13.3 |
| Richlands | C− | 5.1 | 13.5 |
| Bluefield | D | 1.2 | 37.4 |
| Rocky Mount | D | 1.1 | 42.0 |
The five graded Virginia towns closest to South Hill’s population (4,889), 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 South Hill. 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 South Hill’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,981 in 2025); our figure for South Hill is 4,889 (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 South Hill
Is South Hill, VA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, South Hill reports more crime per resident than 91% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #75 of 84 in Virginia. Its police reported 4.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Virginia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in South Hill?
4.2 violent and 34.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Virginia reports 3.3 and 22.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices South Hill?
South Hill’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “South Hill”. 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 South Hill.
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.