Does Myrtle Beach really deserve the nickname "Murder Beach"

How many times have you seen a post by a friend or media outlet sharing a "Top 15 Dangerous Cities in..."?   I know I've seen my share, and every time, I look to see where the city I'm living in is on the list.  If you aren't aware, I live in Myrtle Beach, SC, and it has been determined to be the #1 most dangerous/per capita city in South Carolina.  This bugs me because, it's a tourist town, and the crime rates are calculated using the population of the city they are referring to.  This is not far to Myrtle Beach, or any other Tourist town, and there is by far, way more people in the city at any given time than the population stats.

Myrtle Beach may seem like a really large city to some people, but did you know that the actually population of year round residence is under 30,000 people? That's crazy to think about, especially when you're on vacation and see the craziness.   The Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce  estimate that more than 13 Million people visit the area each year (http://www.myrtlebeachareachamber.com/research/docs/20statabstract.pdf) .   So at any given time, there could be 1 million people in town, especially during prime time of summer.

If we look at Horry County as a whole, there are almost 300,000 people living in the area.  I believe to get a true Crime Rate, you need to include Horry County.  When you do this, you get a Crime Rate that is below the National Average, which means that Myrtle Beach is NOT the most dangerous city in South Carolina.

We can look at a single number all day long and it won't tell us anything, other than we can compare Myrtle Beach to the National Average, or other Cities, but that isn't really going to tell us anything.  This is why I took some historical data from the FBI's Crime Stat's and put them in a Tableau Dashboard. Now, we can see the Crime Rate over time, and add a trend line, now it tells a story.

We can now see that for the most part, even without taking into consideration population, the Crime Rate is on a down ward trend for all recorded crimes.  This is great news, in looking at a single number you think "Oh my, that's high", but now, when you see where it was, and now it's dropped, it now means that things are getting better, and not worse.  And because it's getting better, and crime is on a downward trend, I don't believe that Myrtle Beach deserves the nickname Murder Beach.

I love living in Myrtle Beach, the crowds, traffic and all.  I feel safe, and with any city, you avoid the area's where the trouble is, and no matter where you live, there are areas that you avoid right?

Thanks for your time!

Until next time,


Todd