Blacksburg, VA is safer than most U.S. cities, and earns an A PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 78% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Blacksburg, VA shows violent crime at 76.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 715 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 78% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
A safety grade
76.5/100K violent
715/100K property
-78% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Blacksburg, VA
Comparable rate records
Blacksburg's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Virginia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Blacksburg's 76.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Cape Charles (77.2), Clintwood (75.5), Manassas Park (80.1), Wise (69.9). 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
Blacksburg reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable Virginia cities
At 76.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Blacksburg ranks 94 of 125 — above 31 of the 124 other Virginia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -59.7% against the cohort median of 189.9. 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 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 65.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 76.5 in 2024 (+17.2%). The highest observed value was 91.2 in 2023 and the lowest 48.1 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Blacksburg'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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Blacksburg's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 19.8 Census sq mi, Blacksburg logged 16.5 property and 1.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Blacksburg's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (79% of 362 offenses; mix index 6,326).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (19.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-16.1%
91.2 → 76.5/100K
Property Crime Rate
+5.5%
677.5 → 715/100K
Property offenses lead Blacksburg's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs VA
Property Crime
327
715
1711
1590.1
Larceny-Theft
285
623.2
-
-
Burglary
31
67.8
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
11
24.1
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
35
76.5
352
222.8
Rape
19
41.5
-
-
Aggravated Assault
15
32.8
-
-
Robbery
1
2.2
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Blacksburg Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Blacksburg property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Blacksburg Police Department
Reporting agency for Blacksburg NIBRS-participating
Blacksburg Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Blacksburg's 362 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 Virginia
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Virginia cities closest to Blacksburg in population. Their populations run from 27,700 to 51,270, against 45,734 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Blacksburg reported 35 violent crimes and 327 property crimes, for a total of 362 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Blacksburg?
From 2023 to 2024, Blacksburg's violent crime rate decreased by 16.1%, and the property crime rate increased by 5.5%.
What is the most common crime in Blacksburg?
The most common crime type in Blacksburg is larceny-theft, accounting for 78.7% of all reported crimes (285 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Blacksburg figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Blacksburg, VA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.