Carlsbad, CA has a B safety grade (67/100) with a violent crime rate of 199 per 100,000, 43% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Carlsbad, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 113,023 residents, Carlsbad is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Carlsbad, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 43% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Carlsbad, CA shows violent crime at 199.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,511.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 43% 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.
B safety grade
199.1/100K violent
1511.2/100K property
-43% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Carlsbad, CA
Comparable rate records
Carlsbad's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Carlsbad's 199.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Arroyo Grande (198.0), La Verne (197.3), Lake Shastina (196.3), Fremont (195.7). 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
Carlsbad sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 199.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Carlsbad ranks 332 of 458 — above 126 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -40.2% 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.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 11.6% of the 1,933 Part I offenses reported in Carlsbad for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 5.5 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 192.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 199.1 in 2024 (+3.6%). The highest observed value was 222.1 in 2021 and the lowest 192.2 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Carlsbad'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.
Carlsbad's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 37.8 Census sq mi, Carlsbad logged 45.2 property and 6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Carlsbad's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 1,933 offenses; mix index 4,970).
Violent offenses are only 12% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (37.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-8.2%
1646.8 → 1511.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-1.9%
203 → 199.1/100K
Property offenses lead Carlsbad's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
1,708
1511.2
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
1,318
1166.1
-
Burglary
267
236.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
123
108.8
-
Arson
8
7.1
-
Violent Crime
225
199.1
476.8
Aggravated Assault
178
157.5
-
Robbery
39
34.5
-
Rape
7
6.2
-
Murder
1
0.9
-
Carlsbad Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Carlsbad 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
Carlsbad Police Department
Reporting agency for Carlsbad NIBRS-participating
Carlsbad Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Carlsbad's 1,933 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 California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Carlsbad in population. Their populations run from 108,543 to 117,675, against 113,023 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Carlsbad at 199.1/100K violent and 1,511.2/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Carlsbad reported 225 violent crimes and 1,708 property crimes, for a total of 1,933 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Carlsbad?
From 2023 to 2024, Carlsbad's violent crime rate decreased by 1.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 8.2%.
What is the most common crime in Carlsbad?
The most common crime type in Carlsbad is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.2% of all reported crimes (1,318 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Carlsbad'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 Carlsbad, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.