Milton, DE has a B safety grade (65/100) with a violent crime rate of 264 per 100,000, 25% below the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small city

Milton, DE Crime Rate & Safety

Milton is a small municipal reporter (3,793 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with DE and U.S. context.

Data updated 2026-09-05

My saved cities Subscribe to annual updates About this data
B
Safety grade
1,001.8
Property / 100K
263.6
Violent / 100K
4K
Population

Milton, DE is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 25% below the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Milton, DE shows violent crime at 263.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,001.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 25% 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
  • 263.6/100K violent
  • 1001.8/100K property
  • -25% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Milton, DE

Small-count caution

The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable

Milton reported 10 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 3,793. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.

Comparable rate records

Milton's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Delaware cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Milton's 263.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fenwick Island (257.7), Elsmere (244.5), Bridgeville (239.7), Felton (292.2). 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 20.8% of the 48 Part I offenses reported in Milton for 2024, against a median of 13.4% across comparable Delaware cities — a gap of 7.4 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 228.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 263.6 in 2024 (+15.5%). The highest observed value was 263.6 in 2024 and the lowest 112.7 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Position in the state cohort

Milton sits mid-pack among comparable Delaware cities

At 263.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Milton ranks 22 of 38 — above 16 of the 37 other Delaware cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -14.9% against the cohort median of 309.7. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.

Property counts dominate Milton'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.

Based on 10 reported violent incidents in a population of 3,793. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.

Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.

Milton's 2024 municipal footprint

Across 1.9 Census sq mi, Milton logged 20.4 property and 5.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.

Milton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (69% of 48 offenses; mix index 5,156).

Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.

Milton offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (1.9 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
+95%
135.2 → 263.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+27.7%
784.2 → 1001.8/100K

Property offenses lead Milton's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 38 1001.8
Larceny-Theft 33 870
Burglary 4 105.5
Motor Vehicle Theft 1 26.4
Arson 0 0
Violent Crime 10 263.6
Aggravated Assault 9 237.3
Robbery 1 26.4
Murder 0 0
Rape 0 0

Milton Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Milton property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
1,001.8/100K 27.7% vs 2023
4006008001,0001,2001,400 20202021202220232024 1,002

Milton violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
263.6/100K 95% vs 2023
100150200250300 20202021202220232024 264
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 3,066 228.3 1011.1
2021 Comparable 3,189 250.9 1191.6
2022 Comparable 3,548 112.7 451
2023 Comparable 3,698 135.2 784.2
2024 Comparable 3,793 263.6 1001.8

How Milton sits among DE peers

POP-SMALLCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-LOWPROP-LOWQUAD-LLGRADE-BNIBRSUCR-2024
Milton vs. similar-size DE cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Milton vs. similar-size DE cities, violent vs. property crime 59 1,567 Violent crime per 100K → 455 4,529 Property crime per 100K → Milton SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME PROPERTY-HEAVY VIOLENT-HEAVY Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Read the chart as a list
  • Milton: 264 violent, 1002 property per 100,000 (grade B)
  • Lewes: 162 violent, 540 property per 100,000 (grade A)
  • Harrington: 386 violent, 2058 property per 100,000 (grade C)
  • Selbyville: 91 violent, 1430 property per 100,000 (grade A)
  • Camden: 321 violent, 4193 property per 100,000 (grade D)
  • Laurel: 1451 violent, 3016 property per 100,000 (grade F)
  • Clayton: 110 violent, 506 property per 100,000 (grade A)
  • Ocean View: 66 violent, 560 property per 100,000 (grade A)
  • Bridgeville: 240 violent, 1199 property per 100,000 (grade B)

Milton Police Department

Reporting agency for Milton NIBRS-participating

Milton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Milton's 48 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 Milton in population. Their populations run from 2,920 to 4,545, against 3,793 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Milton's closest DE violent-rate matches

Milton sits at 263.6/100K violent (grade B); the Delaware cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

More about Milton's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Milton?

In 2024, Milton reported 10 violent crimes and 38 property crimes, for a total of 48 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Milton?

From 2023 to 2024, Milton's violent crime rate increased by 95%, and the property crime rate increased by 27.7%.

What is the most common crime in Milton?

The most common crime type in Milton is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.8% of all reported crimes (33 incidents in 2024).

Small-city read: Milton is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.

Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.

Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.

Federal sources for this small-city row
Cite, share, or save this city record

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Milton, DE rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.

Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)

Put this to use

Put the Milton, DE 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. Milton is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (3,793 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.