Buellton, CA has a B safety grade (66/100) with a violent crime rate of 243 per 100,000, 31% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small city
Buellton is a small municipal reporter (4,935 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with CA and U.S. context.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Buellton, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 31% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Buellton, CA shows violent crime at 243.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,175.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 31% 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.
Small-count caution
Buellton reported 12 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 4,935. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
2020–2024 direction
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 155.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 243.2 in 2024 (+55.9%). The highest observed value was 243.2 in 2024 and the lowest 59.1 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Buellton's 243.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Capitola (243.2), San Mateo (243.2), Sunnyvale (244.5), Brentwood (241.8). 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
At 243.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Buellton ranks 301 of 458 — above 157 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -27.0% against the cohort median of 333.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property counts dominate Buellton'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.
Based on 12 reported violent incidents in a population of 4,935. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Across 1.6 Census sq mi, Buellton logged 36.7 property and 7.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Buellton leans on larceny-theft at 54% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,596.
Violent offenses are 17% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Buellton offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (1.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 58 | 1175.3 |
| Larceny-Theft | 38 | 770 |
| Burglary | 14 | 283.7 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 6 | 121.6 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 12 | 243.2 |
| Aggravated Assault | 9 | 182.4 |
| Rape | 2 | 40.5 |
| Robbery | 1 | 20.3 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 5,130 | 155.9 | 1559.5 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 5,512 | - | - |
| 2022 | Comparable | 5,152 | 116.5 | 1766.3 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 5,075 | 59.1 | 1399 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 4,935 | 243.2 | 1175.3 |
Buellton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Buellton's 70 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Buellton in population. Their populations run from 4,790 to 5,177, against 4,935 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Buellton sits at 243.2/100K violent (grade B); the California cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
In 2024, Buellton reported 12 violent crimes and 58 property crimes, for a total of 70 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Buellton's violent crime rate increased by 311.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 16%.
The most common crime type in Buellton is larceny-theft, accounting for 54.3% of all reported crimes (38 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Buellton is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Small-city rate methodology for how Buellton's small city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Buellton, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Buellton is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (4,935 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.