New Bedford, MA has a C safety grade (53/100) with a violent crime rate of 353 per 100,000, 0% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
New Bedford, MA Crime Rate & Safety
At 102,491 residents, New Bedford is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
New Bedford, MA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 0% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, New Bedford, MA shows violent crime at 353.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,359.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 0% 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
353.2/100K violent
1359.1/100K property
+0% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for New Bedford, MA
Position in the state cohort
New Bedford reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 353.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, New Bedford ranks 40 of 317 — above 277 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +145.6% 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
New Bedford's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to New Bedford's 353.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are East Brookfield (357.8), Everett (347.9), Oak Bluffs (364.8), Southbridge (366.5). 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 627.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 353.2 in 2024 (-43.7%). The highest observed value was 639.4 in 2021 and the lowest 353.2 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 68.5% of reported property offenses in New Bedford, against a cohort median of 78.1%. The remainder is burglary (189) and motor vehicle theft (250). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate New Bedford'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.
New Bedford's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 20 Census sq mi, New Bedford logged 69.6 property and 18.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
New Bedford leans on larceny-theft at 54% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,473.
Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (20 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
-30.1%
505.6 → 353.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-12.8%
1558.3 → 1359.1/100K
Property offenses lead New Bedford's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,393
1359.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
954
930.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
250
243.9
-
Burglary
189
184.4
-
Arson
7
6.8
-
Violent Crime
362
353.2
352
Aggravated Assault
230
224.4
-
Robbery
80
78.1
-
Rape
45
43.9
-
Murder
7
6.8
-
New Bedford Crime Trend (2020-2024)
New Bedford 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 averages
New Bedford Police Department
Reporting agency for New Bedford NIBRS-participating
New Bedford Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind New Bedford's 1,755 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 New Bedford in population. Their populations run from 89,600 to 120,447, against 102,491 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
New Bedford at 353.2/100K violent and 1,359.1/100K property - matched below outside Massachusetts (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, New Bedford reported 362 violent crimes and 1,393 property crimes, for a total of 1,755 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in New Bedford?
From 2023 to 2024, New Bedford's violent crime rate decreased by 30.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.8%.
What is the most common crime in New Bedford?
The most common crime type in New Bedford is larceny-theft, accounting for 54.4% of all reported crimes (954 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: New Bedford'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 New Bedford, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.