Berea is an unincorporated community of 17,200 in Greenville County, about 4 miles northwest of downtown Greenville · Updated November 2026
Is Berea, SC safe?
Berea has more crime than most of the country: an overall CrimeGrade™ of C+, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 82% of Americans live. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, B- against C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Berea run from A+ to D+, so check the map below.
C+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 497 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
18% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Berea as a whole, and 82% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Berea scores 497.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Berea, SC at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Berea, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Berea
Reported rapes run high for a C-graded city. Berea has 0.59 reported rapes a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a C-graded US city, the figure is 0.30.
The safest and least safe parts of Berea
Areas graded C are home to 45% of residents in Berea; 46% live in areas graded A or B and 9% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Berea run from A+ to D+; 2% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
46%45%
A or B 46%C 45%D or F 9%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Berea, the northwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Crime rates and types in Berea
CrimeGrade™ estimates Berea has about 52 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 40% more than the US as a whole and 17% more than South Carolina.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
The largest share of crime reported in Berea is assault, about 39% of the total. It also makes up the largest share of what crime costs here.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
How Berea compares with nearby cities
Berea has less crime than 5 of its 10 nearest cities.
Two things set Berea apart: it has 12 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole, and 1% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less theft and robbery, yet theft and robbery run higher here than that would suggest.
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.12 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 96% of US city residents
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.1% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 88% of US city residents
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 84% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (14 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 62% of US city residents
Show all 6
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.9 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 79% of US city residents
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.82% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 69% of US city residents
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.6.7% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 60% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Berea on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Berea
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Berea about $1,946 a year per household, 61% more than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $45 million a year, or $2,598 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$3.1 million
$178
Rape
$610,000
$35
Robbery
$330,000
$19
Assault
$4.3 million
$252
Burglary
$630,000
$37
Theft
$1.5 million
$88
Vehicle theft
$710,000
$41
Arson
$56,000
$3
Vandalism
$810,000
$47
Total
$12 million
$701
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Berea means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Berea, SC average a SchoolGrade of D+: 44% of students test proficient, against 25% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Berea on SchoolGrade
