Columbus, NE has a A safety grade (83/100) with a violent crime rate of 85 per 100,000, 76% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Columbus (24,595 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then NE and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Columbus, NE carries a PlainCrime A safety grade with violent crime 76% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Columbus, NE shows violent crime at 85.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 927 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 76% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
Small-count caution
Columbus reported 21 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 24,595. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Columbus's 85.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Broken Bow (84.5), St. Paul (82.3), Beatrice (81.5), Seward (78.3). 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 85.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Columbus ranks 33 of 47 — above 14 of the 46 other Nebraska cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -31.5% against the cohort median of 124.6. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 114.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 85.4 in 2024 (-25.4%). The highest observed value was 123.7 in 2023 and the lowest 78.6 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
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.
Based on 21 reported violent incidents in a population of 24,595. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Across 10.6 Census sq mi, Columbus logged 21.5 property and 2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Columbus's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (76% of 249 offenses; mix index 5,921).
Violent offenses are only 8% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Columbus offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (10.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 228 | 927 |
| Larceny-Theft | 189 | 768.4 |
| Burglary | 23 | 93.5 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 16 | 65.1 |
| Arson | 1 | 4.1 |
| Violent Crime | 21 | 85.4 |
| Rape | 11 | 44.7 |
| Aggravated Assault | 9 | 36.6 |
| Robbery | 1 | 4.1 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 23,597 | 114.4 | 1288.3 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 23,727 | 96.9 | 956.7 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 24,158 | 78.6 | 1246 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 24,256 | 123.7 | 1298.6 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 24,595 | 85.4 | 927 |
Columbus Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Columbus's 249 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 Nebraska cities closest to Columbus in population. Their populations run from 15,306 to 34,525, against 24,595 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Columbus sits at 85.4/100K violent (grade A); the Nebraska cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Columbus at 85.4/100K violent and 927/100K property - matched below outside Nebraska (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
85.4/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
927/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Columbus reported 21 violent crimes and 228 property crimes, for a total of 249 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Columbus's violent crime rate decreased by 31%, and the property crime rate decreased by 28.6%.
The most common crime type in Columbus is larceny-theft, accounting for 75.9% of all reported crimes (189 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Columbus 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.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Columbus's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Columbus, NE 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 in the mid-size municipal band (24,595 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.