Pawleys Island is safer than the majority of cities, towns, and villages in America (64%) and also has a lower crime rate than 88% of the communities in South Carolina, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI crime data. How risky is that? Your chance of becoming a victim in Pawleys Island is one in 22 based on the total crime rate (violent and property crimes, combined). In America overall, your chance of becoming a victim of crime is 1 in 40.

How does the crime rate in Pawleys Island compare to similar sized communities across America? When NeighborhoodScout compared Pawleys Island with other communities its size, we found that the crime rate was near the average for all other communities of similar size. So, whether Pawleys Island's crime rate is high or low compared to all places in the US, when we control for population size and compare it to places that are similar in size, it is near the middle of the pack in crime rate; not much more or less dangerous, and about what we would expect from the statistics.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Pawleys Island does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Pawleys Island.

For Pawleys Island, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Pawleys Island is one in 108.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Pawleys Island is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Pawleys Island, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 27, which is a rate of 37 per one thousand population.