Clifton, NJ has a B safety grade (64/100) with a violent crime rate of 166 per 100,000, 53% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 89,870 residents, Clifton is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against NJ and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Clifton, NJ is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 53% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Clifton, NJ shows violent crime at 165.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,265.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 53% 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 96.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 165.8 in 2024 (+72.0%). The highest observed value was 165.8 in 2024 and the lowest 64.3 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Clifton's 165.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Mansfield Township, Burlington County (166.2), Avalon (165.2), Burlington Township (169.7), Lodi (159.7). 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
At 165.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Clifton ranks 87 of 417 — above 330 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +143.3% against the cohort median of 68.1. 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 Clifton'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.
Across 11.3 Census sq mi, Clifton logged 180.6 property and 13.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Clifton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (71% of 2,185 offenses; mix index 5,325).
Violent offenses are only 7% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Clifton offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (11.3 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 2,036 | 2265.5 |
| Larceny-Theft | 1,553 | 1728.1 |
| Burglary | 275 | 306 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 208 | 231.4 |
| Arson | 2 | 2.2 |
| Violent Crime | 149 | 165.8 |
| Aggravated Assault | 99 | 110.2 |
| Robbery | 40 | 44.5 |
| Rape | 9 | 10 |
| Murder | 1 | 1.1 |
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 85,058 | 96.4 | 1568.3 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 88,703 | 64.3 | 1253.6 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 88,768 | 104.8 | 1930.9 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 88,361 | 132.4 | 1814.1 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 89,870 | 165.8 | 2265.5 |
Clifton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Clifton's 2,185 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Jersey cities closest to Clifton in population. Their populations run from 71,138 to 109,086, against 89,870 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Clifton sits at 165.8/100K violent (grade B); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Clifton at 165.8/100K violent and 2,265.5/100K property - matched below outside New Jersey (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
165.8/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
2,265.5/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (+25.2% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Clifton reported 149 violent crimes and 2,036 property crimes, for a total of 2,185 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Clifton's violent crime rate increased by 25.2%, and the property crime rate increased by 24.9%.
The most common crime type in Clifton is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.1% of all reported crimes (1,553 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Clifton'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.
Large-city rate methodology for how Clifton's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Clifton, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Clifton, NJ FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Clifton is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (89,870 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.