Cottonwood, AZ has a B safety grade (68/100) with a violent crime rate of 223 per 100,000, 37% below the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city

Cottonwood, AZ Crime Rate & Safety

Cottonwood (13,441 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then AZ and national benchmarks.

Data updated 2026-08-24

My saved cities Subscribe to annual updates About this data
B
Safety grade
1,168.1
Property / 100K
223.2
Violent / 100K
13K
Population

Cottonwood, AZ carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 37% below the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Cottonwood, AZ shows violent crime at 223.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,168.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 37% 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.

  • B safety grade
  • 223.2/100K violent
  • 1168.1/100K property
  • -37% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Cottonwood, AZ

Comparable rate records

Cottonwood's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Arizona cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Cottonwood's 223.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Maricopa (224.8), Prescott Valley (225.0), Kingman (221.1), Nogales (228.6). 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 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 379.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 223.2 in 2024 (-41.2%). The highest observed value was 379.6 in 2020 and the lowest 223.2 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Position in the state cohort

Cottonwood sits mid-pack among comparable Arizona cities

At 223.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Cottonwood ranks 37 of 64 — above 27 of the 63 other Arizona cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -14.6% against the cohort median of 261.2. 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 Cottonwood'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.

Cottonwood's 2024 municipal footprint

Cottonwood's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 187 offenses; mix index 4,929).

Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.

Cottonwood offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-19.8%
1456.1 → 1168.1/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-9.9%
247.7 → 223.2/100K

Property offenses lead Cottonwood's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 157 1168.1
Larceny-Theft 127 944.9
Burglary 18 133.9
Motor Vehicle Theft 12 89.3
Arson 0 0
Violent Crime 30 223.2
Aggravated Assault 25 186
Robbery 3 22.3
Rape 2 14.9
Murder 0 0

Cottonwood Crime Trend (2020-2024)

The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.

Cottonwood property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
1,168.1/100K 19.8% vs 2023
1,0002,0003,0004,0005,000 2020202220232024 1,168

Cottonwood violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
223.2/100K 9.9% vs 2023
200250300350400 2020202220232024 223
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 12,380 379.6 3917.6
2021 Insufficient reporting 12,935 - -
2022 Comparable 12,680 339.1 2042.6
2023 Comparable 13,323 247.7 1456.1
2024 Comparable 13,441 223.2 1168.1

How Cottonwood sits among AZ peers

POP-MIDCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-LOWPROP-LOWQUAD-LLGRADE-BSRSUCR-2024
Cottonwood vs. similar-size AZ cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Cottonwood vs. similar-size AZ cities, violent vs. property crime 70 796 Violent crime per 100K → 423 2,442 Property crime per 100K → Cottonwood SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Cottonwood Police Department

Reporting agency for Cottonwood Summary Reporting (SRS)

Cottonwood Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Cottonwood's 187 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).

This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.

Similar-Size Cities in Arizona

Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Arizona cities closest to Cottonwood in population. Their populations run from 11,231 to 16,845, against 13,441 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Cottonwood's closest AZ violent-rate matches

Cottonwood sits at 223.2/100K violent (grade B); the Arizona cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

Out-of-state peers for Cottonwood

Cottonwood at 223.2/100K violent and 1,168.1/100K property - matched below outside Arizona (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).

More about Cottonwood's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Cottonwood?

In 2024, Cottonwood reported 30 violent crimes and 157 property crimes, for a total of 187 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Cottonwood?

From 2023 to 2024, Cottonwood's violent crime rate decreased by 9.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 19.8%.

What is the most common crime in Cottonwood?

The most common crime type in Cottonwood is larceny-theft, accounting for 67.9% of all reported crimes (127 incidents in 2024).

Mid-size read: Cottonwood 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.

Federal sources for this mid-size row
Cite, share, or save this city record

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Cottonwood, AZ 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. Cottonwood is scored in the mid-size municipal band (13,441 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.