Lake Elsinore, CA has a B safety grade (67/100) with a violent crime rate of 173 per 100,000, 51% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Lake Elsinore, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 73,871 residents, Lake Elsinore is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Lake Elsinore, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 51% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lake Elsinore, CA shows violent crime at 173.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,853.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 51% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
173.3/100K violent
1853.2/100K property
-51% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Lake Elsinore, CA
Comparable rate records
Lake Elsinore's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lake Elsinore's 173.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are St. Helena (172.3), La Mirada (172.0), La Habra Heights (170.7), La Quinta (177.1). 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
Lake Elsinore reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 173.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lake Elsinore ranks 359 of 458 — above 99 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -48.0% against the cohort median of 333.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 279.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 173.3 in 2024 (-37.9%). The highest observed value was 279.2 in 2020 and the lowest 173.3 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 8.6% of the 1,497 Part I offenses reported in Lake Elsinore for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 8.6 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
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 77.9% of reported property offenses in Lake Elsinore, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (146) and motor vehicle theft (156). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Lake Elsinore'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.
Lake Elsinore's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 38.3 Census sq mi, Lake Elsinore logged 35.8 property and 3.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Lake Elsinore's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (71% of 1,497 offenses; mix index 5,316).
Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (38.3 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
-25%
231.1 → 173.3/100K
Property Crime Rate
-14.1%
2158.3 → 1853.2/100K
Property offenses lead Lake Elsinore's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs CA
Property Crime
1,369
1853.2
1711
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
1,067
1444.4
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
156
211.2
-
-
Burglary
146
197.6
-
-
Arson
3
4.1
-
-
Violent Crime
128
173.3
352
476.8
Aggravated Assault
68
92.1
-
-
Robbery
49
66.3
-
-
Rape
9
12.2
-
-
Murder
2
2.7
-
-
Lake Elsinore 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.
Lake Elsinore property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Lake Elsinore Police Department
Reporting agency for Lake Elsinore Summary Reporting (SRS)
Lake Elsinore Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lake Elsinore's 1,497 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.
Similar-Size Cities in California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Lake Elsinore in population. Their populations run from 71,886 to 75,621, against 73,871 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Lake Elsinore at 173.3/100K violent and 1,853.2/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Lake Elsinore reported 128 violent crimes and 1,369 property crimes, for a total of 1,497 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Lake Elsinore?
From 2023 to 2024, Lake Elsinore's violent crime rate decreased by 25%, and the property crime rate decreased by 14.1%.
What is the most common crime in Lake Elsinore?
The most common crime type in Lake Elsinore is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.3% of all reported crimes (1,067 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Lake Elsinore'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 Lake Elsinore, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.