Montague, MA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 22% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Montague, MA shows violent crime at 428.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 630.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 22% 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
428.4/100K violent
630.7/100K property
+22% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Montague, MA
Position in the state cohort
Montague reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 428.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Montague ranks 26 of 317 — above 291 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +197.9% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 40.4% of the 89 Part I offenses reported in Montague for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 19.1 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.
Comparable rate records
Montague's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Montague's 428.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Middleboro (427.2), Marlborough (421.2), Cambridge (436.7), Lawrence (439.7). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 574.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 428.4 in 2024 (-25.4%). The highest observed value was 794.8 in 2021 and the lowest 428.4 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 64.2% of reported property offenses in Montague, against a cohort median of 78.1%. The remainder is burglary (15) and motor vehicle theft (4). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Montague'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.
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.
Montague's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 30.1 Census sq mi, Montague logged 1.8 property and 1.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Montague leans on larceny-theft at 38% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,000.
Violent offenses are 40% of the municipal total - a violence-heavy book for a small city.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (30.1 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
-30.2%
903.5 → 630.7/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-21.7%
546.8 → 428.4/100K
Property offenses lead Montague's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
53
630.7
1711
Larceny-Theft
34
404.6
-
Burglary
15
178.5
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
4
47.6
-
Arson
1
11.9
-
Violent Crime
36
428.4
352
Aggravated Assault
31
368.9
-
Robbery
4
47.6
-
Rape
1
11.9
-
Murder
0
0
-
Montague Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Montague 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
Montague: 428 violent, 631 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Sterling: 95 violent, 273 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Dighton: 179 violent, 263 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Templeton: 118 violent, 296 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Boxford: 0 violent, 145 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Monson: 399 violent, 472 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Cohasset: 82 violent, 327 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Upton: 35 violent, 105 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Westminster: 163 violent, 582 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Montague Police Department
Reporting agency for Montague NIBRS-participating
Montague Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Montague's 89 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 Montague in population. Their populations run from 8,262 to 8,586, against 8,403 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Montague reported 36 violent crimes and 53 property crimes, for a total of 89 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Montague?
From 2023 to 2024, Montague's violent crime rate decreased by 21.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 30.2%.
What is the most common crime in Montague?
The most common crime type in Montague is larceny-theft, accounting for 38.2% of all reported crimes (34 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Montague 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Montague, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.