Charlottesville, VA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 2% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Charlottesville, VA shows violent crime at 359 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,191.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 2% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
359/100K violent
3191.1/100K property
+2% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Charlottesville, VA
Comparable rate records
Charlottesville's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Virginia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Charlottesville's 359.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Lynchburg (357.2), Danville (365.0), Suffolk (371.0), Kilmarnock (346.3). 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
Charlottesville reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Virginia cities
At 359.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Charlottesville ranks 26 of 125 — above 99 of the 124 other Virginia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +90.2% against the cohort median of 188.7. 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 409.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 359.0 in 2024 (-12.2%). The highest observed value was 545.6 in 2022 and the lowest 325.4 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Charlottesville'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.
Charlottesville's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 10.2 Census sq mi, Charlottesville logged 139.7 property and 15.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Charlottesville's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 1,592 offenses; mix index 5,784).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (10.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+10.3%
325.4 → 359/100K
Property Crime Rate
-10.5%
3565.5 → 3191.1/100K
Property offenses lead Charlottesville's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs VA
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,431
3191.1
1590.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,193
2660.3
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
130
289.9
-
-
Burglary
108
240.8
-
-
Arson
2
4.5
-
-
Violent Crime
161
359
222.8
352
Aggravated Assault
114
254.2
-
-
Robbery
27
60.2
-
-
Rape
19
42.4
-
-
Murder
1
2.2
-
-
Charlottesville Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Charlottesville property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Charlottesville Police Department
Reporting agency for Charlottesville NIBRS-participating
Charlottesville Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Charlottesville's 1,592 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 Virginia
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Virginia cities closest to Charlottesville in population. Their populations run from 27,700 to 51,270, against 44,844 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Charlottesville at 359/100K violent and 3,191.1/100K property - matched below outside Virginia (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Charlottesville reported 161 violent crimes and 1,431 property crimes, for a total of 1,592 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Charlottesville?
From 2023 to 2024, Charlottesville's violent crime rate increased by 10.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 10.5%.
What is the most common crime in Charlottesville?
The most common crime type in Charlottesville is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.9% of all reported crimes (1,193 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Charlottesville 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 Charlottesville, VA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.