Chula Vista, CA has a C safety grade (53/100) with a violent crime rate of 376 per 100,000, 7% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
Chula Vista, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 273,843 residents, Chula Vista is a very large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Chula Vista, CA carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 7% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Chula Vista, CA shows violent crime at 375.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,132.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 7% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
375.8/100K violent
1132.4/100K property
+7% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Chula Vista, CA
Comparable rate records
Chula Vista's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Chula Vista's 375.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Norwalk (374.4), Truckee (373.6), Livingston (372.0), Newark (380.9). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 24.9% of the 4,130 Part I offenses reported in Chula Vista for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 7.8 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 329.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 375.8 in 2024 (+14.1%). The highest observed value was 375.8 in 2024 and the lowest 329.5 in 2020. 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 58.9% of reported property offenses in Chula Vista, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (368) and motor vehicle theft (908). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Position in the state cohort
Chula Vista sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 375.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Chula Vista ranks 204 of 458 — above 254 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +14.4% against the cohort median of 328.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property counts dominate Chula Vista'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 very large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Chula Vista's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 49.6 Census sq mi, Chula Vista logged 62.5 property and 20.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Chula Vista leans on larceny-theft at 44% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,875.
Violent offenses are 25% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (49.6 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
-12.6%
1295.1 → 1132.4/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+7.2%
350.5 → 375.8/100K
Property offenses lead Chula Vista's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
3,101
1132.4
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
1,825
666.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
908
331.6
-
Burglary
368
134.4
-
Arson
35
12.8
-
Violent Crime
1,029
375.8
476.8
Aggravated Assault
748
273.1
-
Robbery
225
82.2
-
Rape
53
19.4
-
Murder
3
1.1
-
Chula Vista Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Chula Vista 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
Chula Vista Police Department
Reporting agency for Chula Vista NIBRS-participating
Chula Vista Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Chula Vista's 4,130 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 Chula Vista in population. Their populations run from 218,990 to 320,148, against 273,843 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Chula Vista at 375.8/100K violent and 1,132.4/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Chula Vista reported 1,029 violent crimes and 3,101 property crimes, for a total of 4,130 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Chula Vista?
From 2023 to 2024, Chula Vista's violent crime rate increased by 7.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.6%.
What is the most common crime in Chula Vista?
The most common crime type in Chula Vista is larceny-theft, accounting for 44.2% of all reported crimes (1,825 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Chula Vista'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 (very 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 Chula Vista, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.