Erie, PA has a C safety grade (46/100) with a violent crime rate of 376 per 100,000, 7% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Erie, PA Crime Rate & Safety
At 92,379 residents, Erie is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against PA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Erie, PA carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 7% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Erie, PA shows violent crime at 375.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,929 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 7% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
375.6/100K violent
1929/100K property
+7% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Erie, PA
Position in the state cohort
Erie reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 375.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Erie ranks 68 of 838 — above 770 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +475.1% against the cohort median of 65.3. 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
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 902.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 375.6 in 2024 (-58.4%). The highest observed value was 902.6 in 2020 and the lowest 113.3 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Comparable rate records
Erie's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Erie's 375.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Glassport (376.6), Coraopolis (378.9), West Mifflin (379.6), Connellsville (379.8). 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 make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 16.3% of the 2,129 Part I offenses reported in Erie for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 6.3 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 counts dominate Erie'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.
Erie's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 19.1 Census sq mi, Erie logged 93.1 property and 18.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Erie's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (71% of 2,129 offenses; mix index 5,325).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (19.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-26.8%
513.3 → 375.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.2%
1905.9 → 1929/100K
Property offenses lead Erie's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs PA
Property Crime
1,782
1929
1457.1
Larceny-Theft
1,520
1645.4
-
Burglary
180
194.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
82
88.8
-
Arson
20
21.6
-
Violent Crime
347
375.6
249.5
Aggravated Assault
242
262
-
Robbery
62
67.1
-
Rape
38
41.1
-
Murder
5
5.4
-
Erie 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.
Erie property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Erie Police Department
Reporting agency for Erie NIBRS-participating
Erie Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Erie's 2,129 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.
Similar-Size Cities in Pennsylvania
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Pennsylvania cities closest to Erie in population. Their populations run from 63,061 to 97,868, against 92,379 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Erie reported 347 violent crimes and 1,782 property crimes, for a total of 2,129 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Erie?
From 2023 to 2024, Erie's violent crime rate decreased by 26.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.2%.
What is the most common crime in Erie?
The most common crime type in Erie is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.4% of all reported crimes (1,520 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Erie'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.