Harrisburg, PA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 117% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Harrisburg, PA shows violent crime at 762.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,992.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 117% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
762.2/100K violent
1992.6/100K property
+117% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Harrisburg, PA
Position in the state cohort
Harrisburg reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 762.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Harrisburg ranks 16 of 838 — above 822 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +1067.0% 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.
Comparable rate records
Harrisburg's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Harrisburg's 762.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Millbourne (751.3), Homestead (773.6), Windber (747.2), Hempfield Township, Mercer County (744.6). 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 27.7% of the 1,377 Part I offenses reported in Harrisburg for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 17.7 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-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 58.8% of reported property offenses in Harrisburg, against a cohort median of 85.9%. The remainder is burglary (167) and motor vehicle theft (243). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 972.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 762.2 in 2024 (-21.6%). The highest observed value was 1071.1 in 2023 and the lowest 488.0 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Harrisburg'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.
Harrisburg's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 8.1 Census sq mi, Harrisburg logged 122.7 property and 46.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Harrisburg leans on larceny-theft at 43% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,658.
Violent offenses are 28% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (8.1 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
-28.8%
1071.1 → 762.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-1.8%
2028.7 → 1992.6/100K
Property offenses lead Harrisburg's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs PA
Property Crime
996
1992.6
1457.1
Larceny-Theft
586
1172.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
243
486.1
-
Burglary
167
334.1
-
Arson
3
6
-
Violent Crime
381
762.2
249.5
Aggravated Assault
257
514.2
-
Robbery
82
164
-
Rape
27
54
-
Murder
15
30
-
Harrisburg 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.
Harrisburg property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Harrisburg Police Department
Reporting agency for Harrisburg NIBRS-participating
Harrisburg Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Harrisburg's 1,377 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 Harrisburg in population. Their populations run from 42,424 to 53,784, against 49,985 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Harrisburg reported 381 violent crimes and 996 property crimes, for a total of 1,377 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Harrisburg?
From 2023 to 2024, Harrisburg's violent crime rate decreased by 28.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 1.8%.
What is the most common crime in Harrisburg?
The most common crime type in Harrisburg is larceny-theft, accounting for 42.6% of all reported crimes (586 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Harrisburg 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 Harrisburg, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.