South Carolina County Rankings

Fire deaths 2020-2021

South Carolina's 46 counties are ranked by the Overall Fireground Index — a normalization of the civilian fire-death rate (South Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal counts per Census population), the one metric comparable across every county. Data confidence flags counties where small counts or sparse public reporting make the profile less certain; it is never folded into the score.

South Carolina counties ranked by Overall Fireground Index, with fire-death rate, five-year deaths, and data confidence.
Rank	County	Index	Fire-death rate	Deaths (5yr)	Confidence
1	Allendale County7,551 pop.	73	0.00	0	limited
2	Dillon County27,577 pop.	73	0.00	0	limited
3	Hampton County18,172 pop.	73	0.00	0	limited
4	McCormick County9,983 pop.	73	0.00	0	limited
5	Berkeley County264,276 pop.	68	0.53	7	moderate
6	Charleston County431,001 pop.	65	0.84	18	moderate
7	Lexington County313,774 pop.	65	0.89	14	moderate
8	Dorchester County174,663 pop.	64	1.03	9	moderate
9	Pickens County138,207 pop.	64	1.01	7	moderate
10	Beaufort County201,775 pop.	62	1.19	12	moderate
11	Greenville County570,745 pop.	61	1.33	38	moderate
12	Richland County430,651 pop.	61	1.30	28	moderate
13	Spartanburg County369,256 pop.	61	1.35	25	moderate
14	Marion County28,368 pop.	60	1.41	2	moderate
15	Georgetown County66,035 pop.	59	1.51	5	moderate
16	Horry County413,391 pop.	59	1.50	31	moderate
17	Abbeville County24,607 pop.	58	1.63	2	moderate
18	York County303,001 pop.	58	1.58	24	moderate
19	Anderson County217,183 pop.	57	1.75	19	moderate
20	Lancaster County111,652 pop.	56	1.79	10	moderate
21	Clarendon County31,030 pop.	55	1.93	3	moderate
22	Fairfield County20,369 pop.	55	1.96	2	moderate
23	Greenwood County70,041 pop.	54	2.00	7	moderate
24	Newberry County39,203 pop.	54	2.04	4	moderate
25	Saluda County19,452 pop.	54	2.06	2	moderate
26	Williamsburg County29,865 pop.	54	2.01	3	moderate
27	Florence County138,049 pop.	50	2.46	17	moderate
28	Lee County15,958 pop.	50	2.51	2	moderate
29	Aiken County179,245 pop.	48	2.68	24	moderate
30	Chesterfield County44,488 pop.	48	2.70	6	moderate
31	Barnwell County20,495 pop.	46	2.93	3	moderate
32	Laurens County70,545 pop.	46	2.84	10	moderate
33	Cherokee County57,770 pop.	44	3.12	9	moderate
34	Kershaw County71,698 pop.	44	3.07	11	moderate
35	Marlboro County25,498 pop.	44	3.14	4	moderate
36	Oconee County82,475 pop.	44	3.15	13	moderate
37	Union County26,678 pop.	38	3.75	5	moderate
38	Darlington County62,425 pop.	37	3.84	12	moderate
39	Jasper County35,618 pop.	36	3.93	7	moderate
40	Edgefield County29,455 pop.	35	4.07	6	moderate
41	Orangeburg County83,129 pop.	32	4.33	18	moderate
42	Sumter County104,776 pop.	26	4.96	26	moderate
43	Colleton County39,259 pop.	25	5.09	10	moderate
44	Calhoun County14,249 pop.	20	5.61	4	moderate
45	Bamberg County12,870 pop.	14	6.22	4	moderate
46	Chester County32,323 pop.	0	10.52	17	moderate

Counties are ranked only against one another. A low fire-death count in a small county produces a high score but a limited confidence flag — the uncertainty is shown, not hidden. See the methodology and data sources.