Bismarck, ND has a C safety grade (51/100) with a violent crime rate of 278 per 100,000, 21% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Bismarck, ND Crime Rate & Safety
At 75,546 residents, Bismarck is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against ND and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Bismarck, ND carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 21% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Bismarck, ND shows violent crime at 278 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,399.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 21% 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
278/100K violent
2399.9/100K property
-21% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Bismarck, ND
Comparable rate records
Bismarck's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Dakota cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Bismarck's 278.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Mandan (287.3), Dickinson (297.1), Watford City (302.6), Wahpeton (237.6). 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
Bismarck sits mid-pack among comparable North Dakota cities
At 278.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Bismarck ranks 8 of 23 — above 15 of the 22 other North Dakota cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +86.2% against the cohort median of 149.3. 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 354.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 278.0 in 2024 (-21.6%). The highest observed value was 354.7 in 2020 and the lowest 278.0 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Share of the state cohort
Bismarck carries a large share of the reporting cohort’s total offenses
The 2,023 Part I offenses reported here are 15.2% of the 13,292 reported across all 23 comparable North Dakota cities in 2024. A city this large moves the statewide municipal total on its own, so state-level changes should be read against its population of 75,546 rather than as a uniform shift.
Property counts dominate Bismarck'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.
Bismarck's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 34.7 Census sq mi, Bismarck logged 52.3 property and 6.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Bismarck's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (72% of 2,023 offenses; mix index 5,360).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (34.7 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
-23.4%
3134.9 → 2399.9/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-11.9%
315.5 → 278/100K
Property offenses lead Bismarck's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs ND
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,813
2399.9
1705.7
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,452
1922
-
-
Burglary
187
247.5
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
174
230.3
-
-
Arson
5
6.6
-
-
Violent Crime
210
278
256.7
352
Aggravated Assault
129
170.8
-
-
Robbery
46
60.9
-
-
Rape
34
45
-
-
Murder
1
1.3
-
-
Bismarck Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Bismarck 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
Bismarck Police Department
Reporting agency for Bismarck NIBRS-participating
Bismarck Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Bismarck's 2,023 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 North Dakota
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the North Dakota cities closest to Bismarck in population. Their populations run from 15,651 to 135,682, against 75,546 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Bismarck at 278/100K violent and 2,399.9/100K property - matched below outside North Dakota (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Bismarck reported 210 violent crimes and 1,813 property crimes, for a total of 2,023 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Bismarck?
From 2023 to 2024, Bismarck's violent crime rate decreased by 11.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 23.4%.
What is the most common crime in Bismarck?
The most common crime type in Bismarck is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.8% of all reported crimes (1,452 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Bismarck'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 Bismarck, ND rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.