National City, CA has a F safety grade (14/100) with a violent crime rate of 696 per 100,000, 98% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
National City, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 54,915 residents, National City is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
National City, CA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 98% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, National City, CA shows violent crime at 695.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,939.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 98% 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
695.6/100K violent
1939.4/100K property
+98% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for National City, CA
Position in the state cohort
National City reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 695.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, National City ranks 56 of 458 — above 402 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +111.8% against the cohort median of 328.5. 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
National City's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to National City's 695.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fort Bragg (695.6), Mount Shasta (694.9), Chico (699.2), Huntington Park (691.4). 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 26.4% of the 1,447 Part I offenses reported in National City for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 9.3 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 568.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 695.6 in 2024 (+22.3%). The highest observed value was 695.6 in 2024 and the lowest 568.8 in 2020. 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 53.6% of reported property offenses in National City, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (133) and motor vehicle theft (361). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate National City'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 large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
National City's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 7.3 Census sq mi, National City logged 144.9 property and 52 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
National City leans on larceny-theft at 39% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,612.
Violent offenses are 26% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (7.3 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
-8.8%
2127.7 → 1939.4/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+5.3%
660.4 → 695.6/100K
Property offenses lead National City's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,065
1939.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
571
1039.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
361
657.4
-
Burglary
133
242.2
-
Arson
9
16.4
-
Violent Crime
382
695.6
352
Aggravated Assault
240
437
-
Robbery
122
222.2
-
Rape
16
29.1
-
Murder
4
7.3
-
National City Crime Trend (2020-2024)
National City 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
National City Police Department
Reporting agency for National City NIBRS-participating
National City Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind National City's 1,447 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 California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to National City in population. Their populations run from 53,397 to 56,536, against 54,915 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
National City at 695.6/100K violent and 1,939.4/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, National City reported 382 violent crimes and 1,065 property crimes, for a total of 1,447 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in National City?
From 2023 to 2024, National City's violent crime rate increased by 5.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 8.8%.
What is the most common crime in National City?
The most common crime type in National City is larceny-theft, accounting for 39.5% of all reported crimes (571 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: National City'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 (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 National City, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.