Columbus, GA has a F safety grade (20/100) with a violent crime rate of 604 per 100,000, 72% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 201,061 residents, Columbus is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against GA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Columbus, GA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 72% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Columbus, GA shows violent crime at 603.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,235.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 72% 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 120.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 603.8 in 2024 (+401.5%). The highest observed value was 721.9 in 2023 and the lowest 120.4 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
At 603.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Columbus ranks 23 of 186 — above 163 of the 185 other Georgia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +203.1% against the cohort median of 199.2. 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
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Columbus's 603.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Milledgeville (613.4), Pelham (586.0), Soperton (585.0), Wadley (581.8). 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 are 21.3% of the 5,709 Part I offenses reported in Columbus for 2024, against a median of 12.5% across comparable Georgia cities — a gap of 8.8 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 73.2% of reported property offenses in Columbus, against a cohort median of 81.3%. The remainder is burglary (711) and motor vehicle theft (495). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Columbus'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 216.5 Census sq mi, Columbus logged 20.8 property and 5.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Columbus leans on larceny-theft at 58% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,882.
Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Columbus offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (216.5 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 | 4,495 | 2235.6 |
| Larceny-Theft | 3,289 | 1635.8 |
| Burglary | 711 | 353.6 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 495 | 246.2 |
| Arson | 6 | 3 |
| Violent Crime | 1,214 | 603.8 |
| Aggravated Assault | 1,035 | 514.8 |
| Robbery | 102 | 50.7 |
| Rape | 51 | 25.4 |
| Murder | 26 | 12.9 |
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 | 195,998 | 120.4 | 527 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 196,633 | 194.3 | 677.4 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 204,986 | 634.7 | 2373.3 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 200,848 | 721.9 | 2827 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 201,061 | 603.8 | 2235.6 |
Columbus Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Columbus's 5,709 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 Georgia cities closest to Columbus in population. Their populations run from 67,788 to 241,780, against 201,061 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Columbus sits at 603.8/100K violent (grade F); the Georgia cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Columbus at 603.8/100K violent and 2,235.6/100K property - matched below outside Georgia (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
603.8/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
2,235.6/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (-16.4% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Columbus reported 1,214 violent crimes and 4,495 property crimes, for a total of 5,709 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Columbus's violent crime rate decreased by 16.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 20.9%.
The most common crime type in Columbus is larceny-theft, accounting for 57.6% of all reported crimes (3,289 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Columbus'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 Columbus's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Columbus, GA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Columbus is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (201,061 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.