Effingham, IL has a B safety grade (61/100) with a violent crime rate of 221 per 100,000, 37% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Effingham (12,246 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then IL and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Effingham, IL is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 37% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Effingham, IL shows violent crime at 220.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,976.2 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 574.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 220.5 in 2024 (-61.6%). The highest observed value was 574.6 in 2020 and the lowest 220.5 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Small-count caution
Effingham reported 27 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 12,246. 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 Effingham's 220.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Hometown (220.8), Glenwood (220.9), South Jacksonville (219.6), Nauvoo (218.1). 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 220.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Effingham ranks 130 of 506 — above 376 of the 505 other Illinois cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +121.2% against the cohort median of 99.7. 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 Effingham'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 27 reported violent incidents in a population of 12,246. 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 10.8 Census sq mi, Effingham logged 22.4 property and 2.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Effingham's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (61% of 269 offenses; mix index 4,376).
Violent offenses are only 10% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Effingham offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (10.8 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 | 242 | 1976.2 |
| Larceny-Theft | 164 | 1339.2 |
| Burglary | 65 | 530.8 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 13 | 106.2 |
| Arson | 4 | 32.7 |
| Violent Crime | 27 | 220.5 |
| Aggravated Assault | 17 | 138.8 |
| Rape | 8 | 65.3 |
| Robbery | 2 | 16.3 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 12,531 | 574.6 | 2713.3 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 12,627 | - | - |
| 2022 | Comparable | 12,188 | 311.8 | 2748.6 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 12,169 | 312.3 | 2309.1 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 12,246 | 220.5 | 1976.2 |
Effingham Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Effingham's 269 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
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 Illinois cities closest to Effingham in population. Their populations run from 11,835 to 12,697, against 12,246 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Effingham sits at 220.5/100K violent (grade B); the Illinois cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Effingham at 220.5/100K violent and 1,976.2/100K property - matched below outside Illinois (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
220.5/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
1,976.2/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Effingham reported 27 violent crimes and 242 property crimes, for a total of 269 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Effingham's violent crime rate decreased by 29.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 14.4%.
The most common crime type in Effingham is larceny-theft, accounting for 61.0% of all reported crimes (164 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Effingham 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 Effingham's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Effingham, IL rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Effingham, IL 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. Effingham is scored in the mid-size municipal band (12,246 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.