Gloucester, MA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 21% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Gloucester, MA shows violent crime at 277.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 552.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 21% 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.
B safety grade
277.8/100K violent
552.3/100K property
-21% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Gloucester, MA
Comparable rate records
Gloucester's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Gloucester's 277.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Adams (276.8), Bourne (274.6), Foxborough (282.0), Falmouth (283.4). 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
Gloucester reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 277.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Gloucester ranks 64 of 317 — above 253 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +93.2% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 33.5% of the 254 Part I offenses reported in Gloucester for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 12.1 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 236.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 277.8 in 2024 (+17.5%). The highest observed value was 277.8 in 2024 and the lowest 164.7 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Gloucester'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.
Gloucester's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 26.2 Census sq mi, Gloucester logged 6.5 property and 3.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Gloucester leans on larceny-theft at 50% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,507.
Violent offenses are 33% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (26.2 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
+8.2%
256.7 → 277.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
+4.8%
526.8 → 552.3/100K
Property offenses lead Gloucester's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
169
552.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
127
415
-
Burglary
30
98
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
12
39.2
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
85
277.8
352
Aggravated Assault
73
238.6
-
Rape
11
35.9
-
Robbery
1
3.3
-
Murder
0
0
-
Gloucester Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Gloucester property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Gloucester Police Department
Reporting agency for Gloucester NIBRS-participating
Gloucester Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Gloucester's 254 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 Gloucester in population. Their populations run from 29,410 to 31,827, against 30,599 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Gloucester reported 85 violent crimes and 169 property crimes, for a total of 254 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Gloucester?
From 2023 to 2024, Gloucester's violent crime rate increased by 8.2%, and the property crime rate increased by 4.8%.
What is the most common crime in Gloucester?
The most common crime type in Gloucester is larceny-theft, accounting for 50.0% of all reported crimes (127 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Gloucester 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 Gloucester, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.