Bethlehem, PA has a B safety grade (68/100) with a violent crime rate of 206 per 100,000, 42% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Bethlehem, PA Crime Rate & Safety
At 79,194 residents, Bethlehem 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.
Bethlehem, PA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 42% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Bethlehem, PA shows violent crime at 205.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,368.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 42% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
205.8/100K violent
1368.8/100K property
-42% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Bethlehem, PA
Comparable rate records
Bethlehem's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Bethlehem's 205.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are DuBois (206.5), Media (205.0), Beaver Valley Regional (208.7), Edwardsville (202.6). 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
Bethlehem reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 205.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Bethlehem ranks 144 of 838 — above 694 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +215.1% 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 172.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 205.8 in 2024 (+19.3%). The highest observed value was 205.8 in 2024 and the lowest 88.6 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 13.1% of the 1,247 Part I offenses reported in Bethlehem for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 3.1 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 Bethlehem'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.
Bethlehem's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 19.1 Census sq mi, Bethlehem logged 56.7 property and 8.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Bethlehem's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (73% of 1,247 offenses; mix index 5,522).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (19.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+16.4%
176.8 → 205.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
-14.3%
1597.8 → 1368.8/100K
Property offenses lead Bethlehem's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,084
1368.8
1711
Larceny-Theft
911
1150.3
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
106
133.8
-
Burglary
67
84.6
-
Arson
7
8.8
-
Violent Crime
163
205.8
352
Aggravated Assault
107
135.1
-
Rape
32
40.4
-
Robbery
22
27.8
-
Murder
2
2.5
-
Bethlehem 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.
Bethlehem property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Bethlehem Police Department
Reporting agency for Bethlehem NIBRS-participating
Bethlehem Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Bethlehem's 1,247 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 Bethlehem in population. Their populations run from 62,843 to 92,379, against 79,194 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Bethlehem reported 163 violent crimes and 1,084 property crimes, for a total of 1,247 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Bethlehem?
From 2023 to 2024, Bethlehem's violent crime rate increased by 16.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 14.3%.
What is the most common crime in Bethlehem?
The most common crime type in Bethlehem is larceny-theft, accounting for 73.1% of all reported crimes (911 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Bethlehem'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 Bethlehem, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.