Columbia Heights, MN carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 9% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Columbia Heights, MN shows violent crime at 321.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,185 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 9% below 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
321.3/100K violent
2185/100K property
-9% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Columbia Heights, MN
Position in the state cohort
Columbia Heights reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Minnesota cities
At 321.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Columbia Heights ranks 28 of 276 — above 248 of the 275 other Minnesota cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +228.4% against the cohort median of 97.8. 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
Columbia Heights's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Minnesota cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Columbia Heights's 321.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are New Richland (330.3), Bloomington (311.8), Faribault (307.6), Roseau (336.2). 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 460.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 321.3 in 2024 (-30.2%). The highest observed value was 460.3 in 2020 and the lowest 321.2 in 2023. 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 71.8% of reported property offenses in Columbia Heights, against a cohort median of 85.7%. The remainder is burglary (40) and motor vehicle theft (104). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Columbia Heights'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.
Columbia Heights's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.4 Census sq mi, Columbia Heights logged 149.6 property and 22 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Columbia Heights's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (63% of 585 offenses; mix index 4,345).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.4 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
+26.6%
1726.1 → 2185/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+0%
321.2 → 321.3/100K
Property offenses lead Columbia Heights's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs MN
vs US avg
Property Crime
510
2185
1624.6
1711
Larceny-Theft
366
1568.1
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
104
445.6
-
-
Burglary
40
171.4
-
-
Arson
2
8.6
-
-
Violent Crime
75
321.3
259.4
352
Aggravated Assault
42
179.9
-
-
Robbery
17
72.8
-
-
Rape
16
68.5
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Columbia Heights Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Columbia Heights 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
Columbia Heights Police Department
Reporting agency for Columbia Heights NIBRS-participating
Columbia Heights Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Columbia Heights's 585 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 Minnesota
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Minnesota cities closest to Columbia Heights in population. Their populations run from 22,022 to 24,708, against 23,341 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Columbia Heights at 321.3/100K violent and 2,185/100K property - matched below outside Minnesota (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
How many crimes were reported in Columbia Heights?
In 2024, Columbia Heights reported 75 violent crimes and 510 property crimes, for a total of 585 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Columbia Heights?
From 2023 to 2024, Columbia Heights's violent crime rate increased by 0%, and the property crime rate increased by 26.6%.
What is the most common crime in Columbia Heights?
The most common crime type in Columbia Heights is larceny-theft, accounting for 62.6% of all reported crimes (366 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Columbia Heights 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 Columbia Heights, MN rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.