Milford, DE is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 125% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Milford, DE shows violent crime at 791.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,649.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 125% 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.
F safety grade
791.3/100K violent
3649.8/100K property
+125% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Milford, DE
Comparable rate records
Milford's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Delaware cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Milford's 791.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Blades (748.5), Georgetown (702.2), Bethany Beach (640.4), Rehoboth Beach (635.9). 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
Milford reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Delaware cities
At 791.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Milford ranks 6 of 38 — above 32 of the 37 other Delaware cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +168.9% against the cohort median of 294.2. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 17.8% of the 623 Part I offenses reported in Milford for 2024, against a median of 13.4% across comparable Delaware cities — a gap of 4.4 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 717.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 791.3 in 2024 (+10.4%). The highest observed value was 877.1 in 2023 and the lowest 690.4 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Milford'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.
Milford's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9.9 Census sq mi, Milford logged 51.9 property and 11.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Milford's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 623 offenses; mix index 4,991).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.9 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
-9.8%
877.1 → 791.3/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.7%
3587.6 → 3649.8/100K
Property offenses lead Milford's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs DE
Property Crime
512
3649.8
1711
1772.7
Larceny-Theft
425
3029.7
-
-
Burglary
44
313.7
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
43
306.5
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
111
791.3
352
367.8
Aggravated Assault
96
684.3
-
-
Robbery
7
49.9
-
-
Rape
5
35.6
-
-
Murder
3
21.4
-
-
Milford Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Milford 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Milford: 791 violent, 3650 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Smyrna: 486 violent, 1965 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Seaford: 1134 violent, 4568 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Georgetown: 702 violent, 4990 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Millsboro: 419 violent, 2360 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Elsmere: 245 violent, 1777 property per 100,000 (grade B)
New Castle: 378 violent, 3530 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Clayton: 110 violent, 506 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Laurel: 1451 violent, 3016 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Milford Police Department
Reporting agency for Milford NIBRS-participating
Milford Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Milford's 623 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 Delaware
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Delaware cities closest to Milford in population. Their populations run from 4,410 to 13,386, against 14,028 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Milford reported 111 violent crimes and 512 property crimes, for a total of 623 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Milford?
From 2023 to 2024, Milford's violent crime rate decreased by 9.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.7%.
What is the most common crime in Milford?
The most common crime type in Milford is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.2% of all reported crimes (425 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Milford 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 Milford, DE rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.