Lowell, MA has a D safety grade (32/100) with a violent crime rate of 533 per 100,000, 51% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 116,062 residents, Lowell is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Lowell, MA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 51% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lowell, MA shows violent crime at 532.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,662.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 51% 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 315.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 532.5 in 2024 (+68.7%). The highest observed value was 532.5 in 2024 and the lowest 315.7 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
At 532.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lowell ranks 14 of 317 — above 303 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +270.3% against the cohort median of 143.8. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lowell's 532.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Pittsfield (511.3), Chicopee (566.6), Lynn (574.6), Fitchburg (486.6). 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 Lowell'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 13.6 Census sq mi, Lowell logged 141.8 property and 45.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Lowell's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (60% of 2,548 offenses; mix index 4,146).
Violent offenses are 24% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Lowell offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (13.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 1,930 | 1662.9 |
| Larceny-Theft | 1,520 | 1309.6 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 236 | 203.3 |
| Burglary | 174 | 149.9 |
| Arson | 13 | 11.2 |
| Violent Crime | 618 | 532.5 |
| Aggravated Assault | 539 | 464.4 |
| Robbery | 66 | 56.9 |
| Rape | 8 | 6.9 |
| Murder | 5 | 4.3 |
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 110,876 | 315.7 | 1482.7 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 112,230 | 326.1 | 1353.5 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 113,277 | 401.7 | 1755.9 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 113,124 | 454.4 | 1897 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 116,062 | 532.5 | 1662.9 |
Lowell Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lowell's 2,548 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 Massachusetts cities closest to Lowell in population. Their populations run from 89,600 to 120,447, against 116,062 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Lowell sits at 532.5/100K violent (grade D); the Massachusetts cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Lowell at 532.5/100K violent and 1,662.9/100K property - matched below outside Massachusetts (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
532.5/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
1,662.9/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (+17.2% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Lowell reported 618 violent crimes and 1,930 property crimes, for a total of 2,548 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Lowell's violent crime rate increased by 17.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.3%.
The most common crime type in Lowell is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.7% of all reported crimes (1,520 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Lowell'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 Lowell's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Lowell, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Lowell, MA 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. Lowell is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (116,062 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.