Hiawatha, KS has a D safety grade (33/100) with a violent crime rate of 569 per 100,000, 62% above the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small city

Hiawatha, KS Crime Rate & Safety

Hiawatha is a small municipal reporter (3,166 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with KS and U.S. context.

Data updated 2026-08-24

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D
Safety grade
1,168.7
Property / 100K
568.5
Violent / 100K
3K
Population

Hiawatha, KS carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 62% above the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Hiawatha, KS shows violent crime at 568.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,168.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 62% 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
  • 568.5/100K violent
  • 1168.7/100K property
  • +62% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Hiawatha, KS

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 322.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 568.5 in 2024 (+76.4%). The highest observed value was 568.5 in 2024 and the lowest 322.3 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Small-count caution

The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable

Hiawatha reported 18 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 3,166. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.

Position in the state cohort

Hiawatha reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Kansas cities

At 568.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Hiawatha ranks 10 of 125 — above 115 of the 124 other Kansas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +199.6% against the cohort median of 189.7. 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 32.7% of the 55 Part I offenses reported in Hiawatha for 2024, against a median of 13.8% across comparable Kansas cities — a gap of 19.0 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.

Comparable rate records

Hiawatha's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Kansas cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Hiawatha's 568.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Greensburg (573.9), Anthony (582.2), Wichita (538.6), Coffeyville (529.8). 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.

Property counts dominate Hiawatha'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.

Based on 18 reported violent incidents in a population of 3,166. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.

Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.

Hiawatha's 2024 municipal footprint

Across 2.6 Census sq mi, Hiawatha logged 14.2 property and 6.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.

Hiawatha leans on larceny-theft at 51% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,812.

Violent offenses are 33% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.

Hiawatha offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (2.6 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
-36.5%
1840.9 → 1168.7/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+21.5%
468 → 568.5/100K

Property offenses lead Hiawatha's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 37 1168.7
Larceny-Theft 28 884.4
Motor Vehicle Theft 6 189.5
Burglary 3 94.8
Arson 0 0
Violent Crime 18 568.5
Aggravated Assault 18 568.5
Murder 0 0
Rape 0 0
Robbery 0 0

Hiawatha Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Hiawatha property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
1,168.7/100K 36.5% vs 2023
1,0002,0003,0004,000 20202021202220232024 1,169

Hiawatha violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
568.5/100K 21.5% vs 2023
300400500600 20202021202220232024 569
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 3,103 322.3 3577.2
2021 Comparable 3,075 422.8 3772.4
2022 Comparable 3,239 370.5 2161.2
2023 Comparable 3,205 468 1840.9
2024 Comparable 3,166 568.5 1168.7

How Hiawatha sits among KS peers

POP-SMALLCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-HIGHPROP-LOWQUAD-HLGRADE-DNIBRSUCR-2024
Hiawatha vs. similar-size KS cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Hiawatha vs. similar-size KS cities, violent vs. property crime 26 614 Violent crime per 100K → 442 1,848 Property crime per 100K → Hiawatha SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Hiawatha Police Department

Reporting agency for Hiawatha NIBRS-participating

Hiawatha Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Hiawatha's 55 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 Kansas

Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Kansas cities closest to Hiawatha in population. Their populations run from 3,155 to 3,466, against 3,166 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Hiawatha's closest KS violent-rate matches

Hiawatha sits at 568.5/100K violent (grade D); the Kansas cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

More about Hiawatha's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Hiawatha?

In 2024, Hiawatha reported 18 violent crimes and 37 property crimes, for a total of 55 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Hiawatha?

From 2023 to 2024, Hiawatha's violent crime rate increased by 21.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 36.5%.

What is the most common crime in Hiawatha?

The most common crime type in Hiawatha is larceny-theft, accounting for 50.9% of all reported crimes (28 incidents in 2024).

Small-city read: Hiawatha is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.

Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.

Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.

Federal sources for this small-city row
Cite, share, or save this city record

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Hiawatha, KS rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.

Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Hiawatha is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (3,166 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.