Chattanooga, TN has a F safety grade (0/100) with a violent crime rate of 824 per 100,000, 134% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Chattanooga, TN Crime Rate & Safety
At 188,894 residents, Chattanooga is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against TN and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Chattanooga, TN carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 134% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Chattanooga, TN shows violent crime at 823.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,942.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 134% 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
823.7/100K violent
3942.4/100K property
+134% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Chattanooga, TN
Position in the state cohort
Chattanooga reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Tennessee cities
At 823.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Chattanooga ranks 15 of 176 — above 161 of the 175 other Tennessee cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +176.1% against the cohort median of 298.4. 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
Chattanooga's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Tennessee cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Chattanooga's 823.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Pigeon Forge (788.1), Selmer (868.6), Morristown (765.5), Red Boiling Springs (903.9). 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 1314.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 823.7 in 2024 (-37.3%). The highest observed value was 1314.8 in 2020 and the lowest 823.7 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Chattanooga'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.
Chattanooga's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 142.4 Census sq mi, Chattanooga logged 52.3 property and 10.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Chattanooga's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (61% of 9,003 offenses; mix index 4,132).
Violent offenses are 17% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (142.4 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-22%
1056.3 → 823.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
-18.1%
4812.5 → 3942.4/100K
Property offenses lead Chattanooga's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs TN
Property Crime
7,447
3942.4
1711
2057.9
Larceny-Theft
5,471
2896.3
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
1,259
666.5
-
-
Burglary
717
379.6
-
-
Arson
24
12.7
-
-
Violent Crime
1,556
823.7
352
601.6
Aggravated Assault
1,183
626.3
-
-
Robbery
177
93.7
-
-
Rape
172
91.1
-
-
Murder
24
12.7
-
-
Chattanooga Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Chattanooga 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
Chattanooga Police Department
Reporting agency for Chattanooga NIBRS-participating
Chattanooga Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Chattanooga's 9,003 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 Tennessee
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Tennessee cities closest to Chattanooga in population. Their populations run from 59,921 to 200,457, against 188,894 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Chattanooga reported 1,556 violent crimes and 7,447 property crimes, for a total of 9,003 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Chattanooga?
From 2023 to 2024, Chattanooga's violent crime rate decreased by 22%, and the property crime rate decreased by 18.1%.
What is the most common crime in Chattanooga?
The most common crime type in Chattanooga is larceny-theft, accounting for 60.8% of all reported crimes (5,471 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Chattanooga'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 Chattanooga, TN rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.