Charleston, WV carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 54% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Charleston, WV shows violent crime at 542.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,119.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 54% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
542.7/100K violent
3119.9/100K property
+54% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Charleston, WV
Position in the state cohort
Charleston reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable West Virginia cities
At 542.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Charleston ranks 7 of 49 — above 42 of the 48 other West Virginia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +216.3% against the cohort median of 171.6. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Charleston's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the West Virginia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Charleston's 542.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fairmont (520.3), South Charleston (488.6), Beckley (604.9), Bluefield (480.2). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 921.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 542.7 in 2024 (-41.1%). The highest observed value was 921.0 in 2020 and the lowest 542.7 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 73.1% of reported property offenses in Charleston, against a cohort median of 86.2%. The remainder is burglary (303) and motor vehicle theft (85). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 14.8% of the 1,694 Part I offenses reported in Charleston for 2024, against a median of 9.4% across comparable West Virginia cities — a gap of 5.4 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.
Property counts dominate Charleston'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.
Charleston's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 31.4 Census sq mi, Charleston logged 46 property and 8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Charleston's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (62% of 1,694 offenses; mix index 4,359).
Violent offenses are only 15% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (31.4 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
-18.3%
3819.8 → 3119.9/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-10.7%
607.9 → 542.7/100K
Property offenses lead Charleston's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs WV
Property Crime
1,443
3119.9
1089.3
Larceny-Theft
1,055
2281
-
Burglary
303
655.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
85
183.8
-
Arson
13
28.1
-
Violent Crime
251
542.7
241.6
Aggravated Assault
193
417.3
-
Rape
27
58.4
-
Robbery
25
54.1
-
Murder
6
13
-
Charleston Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Charleston 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
Charleston Police Department
Reporting agency for Charleston NIBRS-participating
Charleston Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Charleston's 1,694 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 West Virginia
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the West Virginia cities closest to Charleston in population. Their populations run from 15,316 to 44,860, against 46,252 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Charleston at 542.7/100K violent and 3,119.9/100K property - matched below outside West Virginia (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Charleston reported 251 violent crimes and 1,443 property crimes, for a total of 1,694 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Charleston?
From 2023 to 2024, Charleston's violent crime rate decreased by 10.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 18.3%.
What is the most common crime in Charleston?
The most common crime type in Charleston is larceny-theft, accounting for 62.3% of all reported crimes (1,055 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Charleston 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 Charleston, WV rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.