Norfolk, VA has a F safety grade (23/100) with a violent crime rate of 470 per 100,000, 33% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 230,460 residents, Norfolk is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against VA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Norfolk, VA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 33% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Norfolk, VA shows violent crime at 469.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,772.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 33% 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.
Position in the state cohort
At 469.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Norfolk ranks 12 of 125 — above 113 of the 124 other Virginia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +148.8% against the cohort median of 188.7. 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
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Norfolk's 469.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are South Boston (464.1), Colonial Heights (462.2), Gordonsville (460.5), Franklin (460.5). 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
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 647.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 469.5 in 2024 (-27.5%). The highest observed value was 748.1 in 2021 and the lowest 469.5 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Norfolk'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.
Across 53.3 Census sq mi, Norfolk logged 163.2 property and 20.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Norfolk's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (74% of 9,776 offenses; mix index 5,610).
Violent offenses are only 11% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Norfolk offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (53.3 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 8,694 | 3772.5 |
| Larceny-Theft | 7,197 | 3122.9 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 911 | 395.3 |
| Burglary | 586 | 254.3 |
| Arson | 9 | 3.9 |
| Violent Crime | 1,082 | 469.5 |
| Aggravated Assault | 774 | 335.9 |
| Robbery | 178 | 77.2 |
| Rape | 93 | 40.4 |
| Murder | 37 | 16.1 |
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 242,516 | 647.4 | 2753.6 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 242,488 | 748.1 | 3241 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 233,419 | 713.3 | 4909.2 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 230,849 | 542.8 | 3851.4 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 230,460 | 469.5 | 3772.5 |
Norfolk Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Norfolk's 9,776 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Virginia cities closest to Norfolk in population. Their populations run from 97,027 to 257,248, against 230,460 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Norfolk sits at 469.5/100K violent (grade F); the Virginia cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Norfolk at 469.5/100K violent and 3,772.5/100K property - matched below outside Virginia (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
469.5/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
3,772.5/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (-13.5% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Norfolk reported 1,082 violent crimes and 8,694 property crimes, for a total of 9,776 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Norfolk's violent crime rate decreased by 13.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2%.
The most common crime type in Norfolk is larceny-theft, accounting for 73.6% of all reported crimes (7,197 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Norfolk'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.
Large-city rate methodology for how Norfolk's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Norfolk, VA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Norfolk is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (230,460 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.