Allentown, PA has a C safety grade (59/100) with a violent crime rate of 272 per 100,000, 23% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Allentown, PA Crime Rate & Safety
At 124,599 residents, Allentown is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against PA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Allentown, PA carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 23% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Allentown, PA shows violent crime at 272.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,569 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 23% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
272.1/100K violent
1569/100K property
-23% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Allentown, PA
Position in the state cohort
Allentown reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 272.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Allentown ranks 103 of 838 — above 735 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +316.5% against the cohort median of 65.3. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Allentown's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Allentown's 272.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Oxford (271.9), Penn Township, York County (271.5), Greensburg (268.9), Danville (267.8). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 347.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 272.1 in 2024 (-21.6%). The highest observed value was 347.2 in 2020 and the lowest 140.6 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 14.8% of the 2,294 Part I offenses reported in Allentown for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 4.8 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Property counts dominate Allentown's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Allentown's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 17.6 Census sq mi, Allentown logged 111.3 property and 19.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Allentown's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 2,294 offenses; mix index 4,894).
Violent offenses are only 15% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (17.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-12.5%
1793.5 → 1569/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-5.7%
288.5 → 272.1/100K
Property offenses lead Allentown's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,955
1569
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,560
1252
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
244
195.8
-
Burglary
151
121.2
-
Arson
11
8.8
-
Violent Crime
339
272.1
352
Aggravated Assault
231
185.4
-
Robbery
71
57
-
Rape
33
26.5
-
Murder
4
3.2
-
Allentown Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Allentown property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Allentown Police Department
Reporting agency for Allentown NIBRS-participating
Allentown Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Allentown's 2,294 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in Pennsylvania
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Pennsylvania cities closest to Allentown in population. Their populations run from 64,290 to 97,868, against 124,599 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Allentown reported 339 violent crimes and 1,955 property crimes, for a total of 2,294 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Allentown?
From 2023 to 2024, Allentown's violent crime rate decreased by 5.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.5%.
What is the most common crime in Allentown?
The most common crime type in Allentown is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.0% of all reported crimes (1,560 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Allentown's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Allentown, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.