Barnstable, MA has a C safety grade (52/100) with a violent crime rate of 410 per 100,000, 17% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Barnstable, MA Crime Rate & Safety
At 50,928 residents, Barnstable is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Barnstable, MA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 17% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Barnstable, MA shows violent crime at 410.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 785.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 17% above 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
410.4/100K violent
785.4/100K property
+17% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Barnstable, MA
Position in the state cohort
Barnstable reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 410.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Barnstable ranks 31 of 317 — above 286 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +185.4% against the cohort median of 143.8. 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
Barnstable's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Barnstable's 410.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Haverhill (411.1), Auburn (408.8), West Springfield (415.3), Marlborough (421.2). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 34.3% of the 609 Part I offenses reported in Barnstable for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 12.9 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 427.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 410.4 in 2024 (-4.1%). The highest observed value was 467.3 in 2022 and the lowest 410.4 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Barnstable'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.
Barnstable's 2024 municipal footprint
Barnstable leans on larceny-theft at 49% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,296.
Violent offenses are 34% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-5.5%
831.4 → 785.4/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-2.7%
421.7 → 410.4/100K
Property offenses lead Barnstable's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
400
785.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
296
581.2
-
Burglary
67
131.6
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
37
72.7
-
Arson
6
11.8
-
Violent Crime
209
410.4
352
Aggravated Assault
166
326
-
Rape
33
64.8
-
Robbery
9
17.7
-
Murder
1
2
-
Barnstable Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Barnstable property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Barnstable Police Department
Reporting agency for Barnstable NIBRS-participating
Barnstable Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Barnstable's 609 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
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 Massachusetts
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Massachusetts cities closest to Barnstable in population. Their populations run from 45,955 to 55,770, against 50,928 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Barnstable reported 209 violent crimes and 400 property crimes, for a total of 609 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Barnstable?
From 2023 to 2024, Barnstable's violent crime rate decreased by 2.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 5.5%.
What is the most common crime in Barnstable?
The most common crime type in Barnstable is larceny-theft, accounting for 48.6% of all reported crimes (296 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Barnstable'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 Barnstable, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.