Bakersfield, CA has a F safety grade (23/100) with a violent crime rate of 555 per 100,000, 58% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
Bakersfield, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 416,120 residents, Bakersfield is a very large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Bakersfield, CA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 58% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Bakersfield, CA shows violent crime at 554.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,469.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 58% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
554.6/100K violent
2469.7/100K property
+58% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Bakersfield, CA
Comparable rate records
Bakersfield's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Bakersfield's 554.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Ukiah (552.9), Palmdale (551.0), San Rafael (559.0), San Leandro (548.7). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Bakersfield reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 554.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Bakersfield ranks 105 of 458 — above 353 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +68.9% against the cohort median of 328.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 51.0% of reported property offenses in Bakersfield, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (2,237) and motor vehicle theft (2,801). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 516.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 554.6 in 2024 (+7.3%). The highest observed value was 650.7 in 2023 and the lowest 516.9 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Bakersfield'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 very large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Bakersfield's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 150.3 Census sq mi, Bakersfield logged 68.4 property and 15.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Bakersfield leans on larceny-theft at 42% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,722.
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (150.3 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
-26.9%
3379.5 → 2469.7/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-14.8%
650.7 → 554.6/100K
Property offenses lead Bakersfield's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
10,277
2469.7
1711
Larceny-Theft
5,239
1259
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
2,801
673.1
-
Burglary
2,237
537.6
-
Arson
17
4.1
-
Violent Crime
2,308
554.6
352
Aggravated Assault
1,587
381.4
-
Robbery
523
125.7
-
Rape
170
40.9
-
Murder
28
6.7
-
Bakersfield 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.
Bakersfield 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
Bakersfield Police Department
Reporting agency for Bakersfield NIBRS-participating
Bakersfield Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Bakersfield's 12,585 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 California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Bakersfield in population. Their populations run from 310,304 to 526,670, against 416,120 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Bakersfield at 554.6/100K violent and 2,469.7/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Bakersfield reported 2,308 violent crimes and 10,277 property crimes, for a total of 12,585 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Bakersfield?
From 2023 to 2024, Bakersfield's violent crime rate decreased by 14.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 26.9%.
What is the most common crime in Bakersfield?
The most common crime type in Bakersfield is larceny-theft, accounting for 41.6% of all reported crimes (5,239 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Bakersfield'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 (very 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 Bakersfield, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.