Denton, TX has a B safety grade (64/100) with a violent crime rate of 204 per 100,000, 42% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 164,565 residents, Denton is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against TX and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Denton, TX is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 42% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Denton, TX shows violent crime at 204.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,744.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 42% 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.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Denton's 204.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Willow Park (205.3), Shallowater (205.5), Hooks (202.3), Farmers Branch (201.5). 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
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 280.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 204.2 in 2024 (-27.1%). The highest observed value was 292.1 in 2021 and the lowest 204.2 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 84.3% of reported property offenses in Denton, against a cohort median of 71.6%. The remainder is burglary (219) and motor vehicle theft (232). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 10.5% of the 3,207 Part I offenses reported in Denton for 2024, against a median of 14.4% across comparable Texas cities — a gap of 3.9 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.
Position in the state cohort
At 204.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Denton ranks 303 of 686 — above 383 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +14.1% against the cohort median of 178.9. 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 Denton'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 96.9 Census sq mi, Denton logged 29.6 property and 3.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Denton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 3,207 offenses; mix index 5,839).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Denton offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (96.9 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 | 2,871 | 1744.6 |
| Larceny-Theft | 2,420 | 1470.5 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 232 | 141 |
| Burglary | 219 | 133.1 |
| Arson | 9 | 5.5 |
| Violent Crime | 336 | 204.2 |
| Aggravated Assault | 191 | 116.1 |
| Rape | 95 | 57.7 |
| Robbery | 43 | 26.1 |
| Murder | 7 | 4.3 |
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 | 144,569 | 280.1 | 2212.1 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 150,975 | 292.1 | 2073.9 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 154,230 | 290.5 | 2489.8 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 155,215 | 268.7 | 2229.8 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 164,565 | 204.2 | 1744.6 |
Denton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Denton's 3,207 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 Texas cities closest to Denton in population. Their populations run from 136,046 to 191,221, against 164,565 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Denton sits at 204.2/100K violent (grade B); the Texas cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Denton at 204.2/100K violent and 1,744.6/100K property - matched below outside Texas (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
204.2/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
1,744.6/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (-24% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Denton reported 336 violent crimes and 2,871 property crimes, for a total of 3,207 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Denton's violent crime rate decreased by 24%, and the property crime rate decreased by 21.8%.
The most common crime type in Denton is larceny-theft, accounting for 75.5% of all reported crimes (2,420 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Denton'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 Denton's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Denton, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Denton, TX 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. Denton is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (164,565 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.