Madison, WI has a C safety grade (58/100) with a violent crime rate of 256 per 100,000, 27% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
Madison, WI Crime Rate & Safety
At 282,045 residents, Madison is a very large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against WI and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Madison, WI carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 27% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Madison, WI shows violent crime at 256 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,865 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 27% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
256/100K violent
1865/100K property
-27% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Madison, WI
Comparable rate records
Madison's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Wisconsin cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Madison's 256.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are West Allis (256.5), Park Falls (254.5), Jefferson (250.2), Rice Lake (244.5). 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
Madison reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Wisconsin cities
At 256.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Madison ranks 33 of 222 — above 189 of the 221 other Wisconsin cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +139.1% against the cohort median of 107.1. 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 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 325.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 256.0 in 2024 (-21.4%). The highest observed value was 325.8 in 2020 and the lowest 256.0 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Madison'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 very large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Madison's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 83.6 Census sq mi, Madison logged 62.9 property and 8.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Madison's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 5,982 offenses; mix index 5,829).
Violent offenses are only 12% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (83.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-20.8%
2354.6 → 1865/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-15.7%
303.8 → 256/100K
Property offenses lead Madison's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs WI
Property Crime
5,260
1865
1156.8
Larceny-Theft
4,500
1595.5
-
Burglary
447
158.5
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
313
111
-
Arson
8
2.8
-
Violent Crime
722
256
279.6
Aggravated Assault
545
193.2
-
Robbery
95
33.7
-
Rape
75
26.6
-
Murder
7
2.5
-
Madison Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Madison property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Madison Police Department
Reporting agency for Madison NIBRS-participating
Madison Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Madison's 5,982 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.
Similar-Size Cities in Wisconsin
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Wisconsin cities closest to Madison in population. Their populations run from 65,994 to 105,240, against 282,045 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Madison reported 722 violent crimes and 5,260 property crimes, for a total of 5,982 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Madison?
From 2023 to 2024, Madison's violent crime rate decreased by 15.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 20.8%.
What is the most common crime in Madison?
The most common crime type in Madison is larceny-theft, accounting for 75.2% of all reported crimes (4,500 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Madison'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 (very 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 Madison, WI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.