Independence, KY has a A+ safety grade (95/100) with a violent crime rate of 27 per 100,000, 92% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Independence (29,747 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then KY and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Independence, KY carries a PlainCrime A+ safety grade with violent crime 92% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Independence, KY shows violent crime at 26.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 316 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 92% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A+ from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
Small-count caution
Independence reported 8 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 29,747. 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 93.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 26.9 in 2024 (-71.2%). The highest observed value was 93.2 in 2020 and the lowest 26.9 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Independence's 26.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Vine Grove (28.5), Stanton (31.6), Mount Washington (31.9), Morganfield (32.2). 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.
Position in the state cohort
At 26.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Independence ranks 146 of 231 — above 85 of the 230 other Kentucky cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -59.8% against the cohort median of 66.9. 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 Independence'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 8 reported violent incidents in a population of 29,747. 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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Across 17.7 Census sq mi, Independence logged 5.3 property and 0.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Independence's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (70% of 102 offenses; mix index 5,168).
Violent offenses are only 8% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Independence offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (17.7 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 94 | 316 |
| Larceny-Theft | 71 | 238.7 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 16 | 53.8 |
| Burglary | 7 | 23.5 |
| Arson | 1 | 3.4 |
| Violent Crime | 8 | 26.9 |
| Rape | 5 | 16.8 |
| Aggravated Assault | 2 | 6.7 |
| Robbery | 1 | 3.4 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 28,957 | 93.2 | 452.4 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 29,339 | 88.6 | 317 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 29,211 | 71.9 | 366.3 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 29,603 | 77.7 | 341.2 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 29,747 | 26.9 | 316 |
Independence Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Independence's 102 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Kentucky cities closest to Independence in population. Their populations run from 26,624 to 33,208, against 29,747 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Independence sits at 26.9/100K violent (grade A+); the Kentucky cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Independence at 26.9/100K violent and 316/100K property - matched below outside Kentucky (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
26.9/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
316/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (-65.4% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Independence reported 8 violent crimes and 94 property crimes, for a total of 102 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Independence's violent crime rate decreased by 65.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 7.4%.
The most common crime type in Independence is larceny-theft, accounting for 69.6% of all reported crimes (71 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Independence 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.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Independence's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Independence, KY 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. Independence is scored in the mid-size municipal band (29,747 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.