Galveston, TX has a D safety grade (26/100) with a violent crime rate of 537 per 100,000, 52% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Galveston, TX Crime Rate & Safety
At 53,100 residents, Galveston 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.
Galveston, TX carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 52% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Galveston, TX shows violent crime at 536.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,380.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 52% 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
536.7/100K violent
2380.4/100K property
+52% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Galveston, TX
Position in the state cohort
Galveston reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 536.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Galveston ranks 52 of 686 — above 634 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +199.9% 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.
Comparable rate records
Galveston's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Galveston's 536.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Webster (537.5), La Marque (539.9), Brenham (531.0), Sansom Park Village (530.1). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 658.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 536.7 in 2024 (-18.4%). The highest observed value was 658.1 in 2020 and the lowest 474.3 in 2022. 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 18.4% of the 1,549 Part I offenses reported in Galveston for 2024, against a median of 14.3% across comparable Texas cities — a gap of 4.1 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 Galveston'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.
Galveston's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 41 Census sq mi, Galveston logged 30.8 property and 6.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Galveston's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 1,549 offenses; mix index 4,327).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (41 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+1.6%
528.3 → 536.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.6%
2342.4 → 2380.4/100K
Property offenses lead Galveston's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,264
2380.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
984
1853.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
141
265.5
-
Burglary
139
261.8
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
285
536.7
352
Aggravated Assault
145
273.1
-
Rape
80
150.7
-
Robbery
57
107.3
-
Murder
3
5.6
-
Galveston Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Galveston 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
Galveston Police Department
Reporting agency for Galveston NIBRS-participating
Galveston Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Galveston's 1,549 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 Texas
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Texas cities closest to Galveston in population. Their populations run from 48,711 to 56,488, against 53,100 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Galveston reported 285 violent crimes and 1,264 property crimes, for a total of 1,549 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Galveston?
From 2023 to 2024, Galveston's violent crime rate increased by 1.6%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.6%.
What is the most common crime in Galveston?
The most common crime type in Galveston is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.5% of all reported crimes (984 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Galveston'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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Galveston, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.