Boulder, CO has a C safety grade (44/100) with a violent crime rate of 322 per 100,000, 8% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Boulder, CO Crime Rate & Safety
At 105,195 residents, Boulder is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CO and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Boulder, CO is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 8% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Boulder, CO shows violent crime at 322.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,733 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 8% 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
322.3/100K violent
2733/100K property
-8% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Boulder, CO
Comparable rate records
Boulder's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Colorado cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Boulder's 322.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Steamboat Springs (323.4), Breckenridge (326.4), Loveland (314.8), Edgewater (309.8). 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
Boulder sits mid-pack among comparable Colorado cities
At 322.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Boulder ranks 43 of 134 — above 91 of the 133 other Colorado cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +65.3% against the cohort median of 194.9. 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 close to where it started
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 325.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 322.3 in 2024 (-1.0%). The highest observed value was 390.1 in 2021 and the lowest 322.3 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Boulder'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.
Boulder's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 26.9 Census sq mi, Boulder logged 107 property and 12.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Boulder's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (70% of 3,214 offenses; mix index 5,185).
Violent offenses are only 11% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (26.9 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
-12.8%
3135.3 → 2733/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-10.2%
358.8 → 322.3/100K
Property offenses lead Boulder's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
2,875
2733
1711
Larceny-Theft
2,253
2141.7
-
Burglary
403
383.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
219
208.2
-
Arson
32
30.4
-
Violent Crime
339
322.3
352
Aggravated Assault
255
242.4
-
Robbery
47
44.7
-
Rape
37
35.2
-
Murder
0
0
-
Boulder Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Boulder 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
Boulder Police Department
Reporting agency for Boulder NIBRS-participating
Boulder Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Boulder's 3,214 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 Colorado
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Colorado cities closest to Boulder in population. Their populations run from 80,374 to 120,456, against 105,195 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Boulder reported 339 violent crimes and 2,875 property crimes, for a total of 3,214 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Boulder?
From 2023 to 2024, Boulder's violent crime rate decreased by 10.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.8%.
What is the most common crime in Boulder?
The most common crime type in Boulder is larceny-theft, accounting for 70.1% of all reported crimes (2,253 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Boulder'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 Boulder, CO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.