Cape May, NJ has a B safety grade (62/100) with a violent crime rate of 145 per 100,000, 59% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small city
Cape May is a small municipal reporter (2,755 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with NJ and U.S. context.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Cape May, NJ is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 59% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Cape May, NJ shows violent crime at 145.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,649.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 59% 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 29.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 145.2 in 2024 (+393.8%). The highest observed value was 210.9 in 2022 and the lowest 0.0 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Small-count caution
Cape May reported 4 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 2,755. 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.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Cape May's 145.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Egg Harbor Township (146.2), Newton (146.2), Palmyra (146.5), Maywood (146.6). 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
At 145.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Cape May ranks 112 of 417 — above 305 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +113.1% against the cohort median of 68.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 91.8% of reported property offenses in Cape May, against a cohort median of 82.0%. The remainder is burglary (5) and motor vehicle theft (1). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Cape May'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 4 reported violent incidents in a population of 2,755. 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 2.5 Census sq mi, Cape May logged 29.5 property and 1.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Cape May's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (87% of 77 offenses; mix index 7,632).
Violent offenses are only 5% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Cape May offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (2.5 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 | 73 | 2649.7 |
| Larceny-Theft | 67 | 2431.9 |
| Burglary | 5 | 181.5 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 1 | 36.3 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 4 | 145.2 |
| Aggravated Assault | 3 | 108.9 |
| Rape | 1 | 36.3 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | 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 · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 3,401 | 29.4 | 1793.6 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 3,384 | - | - |
| 2022 | Comparable | 2,845 | 210.9 | 3796.1 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 2,786 | 143.6 | 3768.8 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 2,755 | 145.2 | 2649.7 |
Cape May Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Cape May's 77 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 New Jersey cities closest to Cape May in population. Their populations run from 2,564 to 2,917, against 2,755 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Cape May sits at 145.2/100K violent (grade B); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
In 2024, Cape May reported 4 violent crimes and 73 property crimes, for a total of 77 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Cape May's violent crime rate increased by 1.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 29.7%.
The most common crime type in Cape May is larceny-theft, accounting for 87.0% of all reported crimes (67 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Cape May 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 Cape May's small city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Cape May, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Cape May, NJ FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Cape May is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (2,755 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.