New Kensington, PA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 30% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, New Kensington, PA shows violent crime at 456.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,400.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 30% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
456.4/100K violent
2400.3/100K property
+30% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for New Kensington, PA
Position in the state cohort
New Kensington reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 456.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, New Kensington ranks 48 of 838 — above 790 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +598.7% against the cohort median of 65.3. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 295.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 456.4 in 2024 (+54.7%). The highest observed value was 456.4 in 2024 and the lowest 283.8 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Comparable rate records
New Kensington's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to New Kensington's 456.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Shamokin (458.5), Norristown (450.2), Chambersburg (465.0), Lower Chichester Township (445.6). 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 16.0% of the 338 Part I offenses reported in New Kensington for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 6.0 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.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 77.5% of reported property offenses in New Kensington, against a cohort median of 85.9%. The remainder is burglary (44) and motor vehicle theft (20). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate New Kensington'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.
New Kensington's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3.9 Census sq mi, New Kensington logged 71.9 property and 13.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
New Kensington's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (65% of 338 offenses; mix index 4,602).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3.9 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
+35.8%
336.2 → 456.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
+12.9%
2126.8 → 2400.3/100K
Property offenses lead New Kensington's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs PA
Property Crime
284
2400.3
1457.1
Larceny-Theft
220
1859.4
-
Burglary
44
371.9
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
20
169
-
Arson
1
8.5
-
Violent Crime
54
456.4
249.5
Aggravated Assault
42
355
-
Robbery
8
67.6
-
Rape
3
25.4
-
Murder
1
8.5
-
New Kensington Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
New Kensington property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
New Kensington Police Department
Reporting agency for New Kensington Summary Reporting (SRS)
New Kensington Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind New Kensington's 338 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.
Similar-Size Cities in Pennsylvania
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Pennsylvania cities closest to New Kensington in population. Their populations run from 11,554 to 12,101, against 11,832 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
New Kensington at 456.4/100K violent and 2,400.3/100K property - matched below outside Pennsylvania (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, New Kensington reported 54 violent crimes and 284 property crimes, for a total of 338 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in New Kensington?
From 2023 to 2024, New Kensington's violent crime rate increased by 35.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 12.9%.
What is the most common crime in New Kensington?
The most common crime type in New Kensington is larceny-theft, accounting for 65.1% of all reported crimes (220 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: New Kensington 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 New Kensington, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.