Gainesville, GA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 39% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Gainesville, GA shows violent crime at 488.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,300.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 39% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
488.3/100K violent
2300.6/100K property
+39% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Gainesville, GA
Comparable rate records
Gainesville's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Georgia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Gainesville's 488.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Bainbridge (486.0), Dawson (483.1), South Fulton (470.5), Hazlehurst (516.5). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Gainesville reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Georgia cities
At 488.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Gainesville ranks 37 of 186 — above 149 of the 185 other Georgia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +145.1% against the cohort median of 199.2. 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 423.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 488.3 in 2024 (+15.3%). The highest observed value was 559.6 in 2022 and the lowest 376.8 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 17.5% of the 1,365 Part I offenses reported in Gainesville for 2024, against a median of 12.5% across comparable Georgia cities — a gap of 5.0 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 Gainesville'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.
Gainesville's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 33.8 Census sq mi, Gainesville logged 33.3 property and 7.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Gainesville's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (72% of 1,365 offenses; mix index 5,319).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (33.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+29.6%
376.8 → 488.3/100K
Property Crime Rate
-11.6%
2601.3 → 2300.6/100K
Property offenses lead Gainesville's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs GA
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,126
2300.6
1567.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
976
1994.1
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
78
159.4
-
-
Burglary
72
147.1
-
-
Arson
7
14.3
-
-
Violent Crime
239
488.3
299.6
352
Aggravated Assault
155
316.7
-
-
Robbery
40
81.7
-
-
Rape
38
77.6
-
-
Murder
6
12.3
-
-
Gainesville Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Gainesville 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
Gainesville Police Department
Reporting agency for Gainesville NIBRS-participating
Gainesville Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Gainesville's 1,365 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 Georgia
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Georgia cities closest to Gainesville in population. Their populations run from 39,613 to 56,700, against 48,944 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Gainesville reported 239 violent crimes and 1,126 property crimes, for a total of 1,365 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Gainesville?
From 2023 to 2024, Gainesville's violent crime rate increased by 29.6%, and the property crime rate decreased by 11.6%.
What is the most common crime in Gainesville?
The most common crime type in Gainesville is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.5% of all reported crimes (976 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Gainesville 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 Gainesville, GA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.