Lafayette, LA has a F safety grade (0/100) with a violent crime rate of 1066 per 100,000, 203% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 121,471 residents, Lafayette is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against LA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Lafayette, LA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 203% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lafayette, LA shows violent crime at 1,066.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,347.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 203% 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 562.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1066.1 in 2024 (+89.7%). The highest observed value was 1066.1 in 2024 and the lowest 478.8 in 2022. 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 Lafayette's 1066.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Farmerville (1073.6), New Iberia (1009.3), Jennings (1007.6), Bogalusa (1131.5). 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 1066.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lafayette ranks 17 of 66 — above 49 of the 65 other Louisiana cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +151.5% against the cohort median of 423.9. 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 Lafayette'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.
Across 56.2 Census sq mi, Lafayette logged 94 property and 23 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Lafayette's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (60% of 6,576 offenses; mix index 4,085).
Violent offenses are 20% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Lafayette offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (56.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 5,281 | 4347.5 |
| Larceny-Theft | 3,921 | 3227.9 |
| Burglary | 803 | 661.1 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 557 | 458.5 |
| Arson | 2 | 1.6 |
| Violent Crime | 1,295 | 1066.1 |
| Aggravated Assault | 1,152 | 948.4 |
| Robbery | 84 | 69.2 |
| Rape | 41 | 33.8 |
| Murder | 18 | 14.8 |
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 126,679 | 562.1 | 4536.7 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 127,010 | 485.8 | 3569.8 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 121,546 | 478.8 | 4387.6 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 121,361 | 818.2 | 4602.8 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 121,471 | 1066.1 | 4347.5 |
Lafayette Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lafayette's 6,576 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 Louisiana cities closest to Lafayette in population. Their populations run from 26,653 to 175,092, against 121,471 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Lafayette sits at 1,066.1/100K violent (grade F); the Louisiana cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Lafayette at 1,066.1/100K violent and 4,347.5/100K property - matched below outside Louisiana (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
1,066.1/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
4,347.5/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (+30.3% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Lafayette reported 1,295 violent crimes and 5,281 property crimes, for a total of 6,576 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Lafayette's violent crime rate increased by 30.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 5.5%.
The most common crime type in Lafayette is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.6% of all reported crimes (3,921 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Lafayette'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.
Large-city rate methodology for how Lafayette's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Lafayette, LA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Lafayette, LA FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Lafayette is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (121,471 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.