Marlborough, MA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 20% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Marlborough, MA shows violent crime at 421.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,036.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 20% above 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
421.2/100K violent
1036.3/100K property
+20% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Marlborough, MA
Position in the state cohort
Marlborough reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 421.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Marlborough ranks 28 of 317 — above 289 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +192.9% 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
Marlborough's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Marlborough's 421.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are West Springfield (415.3), Middleboro (427.2), Montague (428.4), Haverhill (411.1). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 28.9% of the 609 Part I offenses reported in Marlborough for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 7.5 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 382.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 421.2 in 2024 (+10.2%). The highest observed value was 439.6 in 2022 and the lowest 360.4 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Marlborough'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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Marlborough's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 20.9 Census sq mi, Marlborough logged 20.8 property and 8.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Marlborough leans on larceny-theft at 56% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,828.
Violent offenses are 29% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (20.9 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
+16%
363 → 421.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-13.8%
1201.8 → 1036.3/100K
Property offenses lead Marlborough's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
433
1036.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
338
808.9
-
Burglary
50
119.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
45
107.7
-
Arson
2
4.8
-
Violent Crime
176
421.2
352
Aggravated Assault
151
361.4
-
Rape
19
45.5
-
Robbery
6
14.4
-
Murder
0
0
-
Marlborough Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Marlborough property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Marlborough Police Department
Reporting agency for Marlborough NIBRS-participating
Marlborough Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Marlborough's 609 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 Massachusetts
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Massachusetts cities closest to Marlborough in population. Their populations run from 39,837 to 44,407, against 41,785 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Marlborough reported 176 violent crimes and 433 property crimes, for a total of 609 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Marlborough?
From 2023 to 2024, Marlborough's violent crime rate increased by 16%, and the property crime rate decreased by 13.8%.
What is the most common crime in Marlborough?
The most common crime type in Marlborough is larceny-theft, accounting for 55.5% of all reported crimes (338 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Marlborough 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Marlborough, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.