Fitchburg, MA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 38% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Fitchburg, MA shows violent crime at 486.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,344.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 38% 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
486.6/100K violent
1344.1/100K property
+38% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Fitchburg, MA
Position in the state cohort
Fitchburg reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 486.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Fitchburg ranks 16 of 317 — above 301 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +238.4% against the cohort median of 143.8. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Fitchburg's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Fitchburg's 486.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Leominster (484.2), Pittsfield (511.3), Hadley (455.9), Athol (452.1). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 26.6% of the 775 Part I offenses reported in Fitchburg for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 5.2 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 553.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 486.6 in 2024 (-12.1%). The highest observed value was 553.9 in 2020 and the lowest 447.5 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Fitchburg'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.
Fitchburg's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 27.8 Census sq mi, Fitchburg logged 20.4 property and 7.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Fitchburg leans on larceny-theft at 52% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,475.
Violent offenses are 27% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (27.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
+27%
1058.6 → 1344.1/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+4.3%
466.7 → 486.6/100K
Property offenses lead Fitchburg's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
569
1344.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
403
952
-
Burglary
115
271.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
51
120.5
-
Arson
7
16.5
-
Violent Crime
206
486.6
352
Aggravated Assault
173
408.7
-
Rape
17
40.2
-
Robbery
15
35.4
-
Murder
1
2.4
-
Fitchburg Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Fitchburg property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Fitchburg Police Department
Reporting agency for Fitchburg NIBRS-participating
Fitchburg Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Fitchburg's 775 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.
Similar-Size Cities in Massachusetts
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Massachusetts cities closest to Fitchburg in population. Their populations run from 39,837 to 44,407, against 42,332 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Fitchburg reported 206 violent crimes and 569 property crimes, for a total of 775 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Fitchburg?
From 2023 to 2024, Fitchburg's violent crime rate increased by 4.3%, and the property crime rate increased by 27%.
What is the most common crime in Fitchburg?
The most common crime type in Fitchburg is larceny-theft, accounting for 52.0% of all reported crimes (403 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Fitchburg 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Fitchburg, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.