Huntsville, AL has a D safety grade (31/100) with a violent crime rate of 483 per 100,000, 37% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Huntsville, AL Crime Rate & Safety
At 228,697 residents, Huntsville is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against AL and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Huntsville, AL carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 37% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Huntsville, AL shows violent crime at 483.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,388.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 37% 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
483.2/100K violent
2388.3/100K property
+37% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Huntsville, AL
Comparable rate records
Huntsville's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Alabama cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Huntsville's 483.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Cordova (483.1), Silverhill (482.2), Hackleburg (485.8), Troy (486.2). 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 345.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 483.2 in 2024 (+39.8%). The highest observed value was 483.2 in 2024 and the lowest 13.6 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Huntsville reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Alabama cities
At 483.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Huntsville ranks 66 of 263 — above 197 of the 262 other Alabama cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +126.3% against the cohort median of 213.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property counts dominate Huntsville'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.
Huntsville's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 225.2 Census sq mi, Huntsville logged 24.3 property and 4.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Huntsville's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (63% of 6,567 offenses; mix index 4,349).
Violent offenses are 17% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (225.2 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
+7.3%
450.2 → 483.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-0.7%
2405.1 → 2388.3/100K
Property offenses lead Huntsville's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs AL
vs US avg
Property Crime
5,462
2388.3
1622.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
4,137
1808.9
-
-
Burglary
735
321.4
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
590
258
-
-
Arson
17
7.4
-
-
Violent Crime
1,105
483.2
376.1
352
Aggravated Assault
852
372.5
-
-
Robbery
123
53.8
-
-
Rape
111
48.5
-
-
Murder
19
8.3
-
-
Huntsville 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.
Huntsville 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
Huntsville Police Department
Reporting agency for Huntsville NIBRS-participating
Huntsville Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Huntsville's 6,567 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 Alabama
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Alabama cities closest to Huntsville in population. Their populations run from 62,087 to 237,092, against 228,697 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Huntsville reported 1,105 violent crimes and 5,462 property crimes, for a total of 6,567 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Huntsville?
From 2023 to 2024, Huntsville's violent crime rate increased by 7.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 0.7%.
What is the most common crime in Huntsville?
The most common crime type in Huntsville is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.0% of all reported crimes (4,137 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Huntsville'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 Huntsville, AL rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.