Olympia, WA has a F safety grade (14/100) with a violent crime rate of 565 per 100,000, 60% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Olympia, WA Crime Rate & Safety
At 55,775 residents, Olympia is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against WA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Olympia, WA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 60% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Olympia, WA shows violent crime at 564.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,435.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 60% 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
564.8/100K violent
3435.2/100K property
+60% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Olympia, WA
Position in the state cohort
Olympia reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Washington cities
At 564.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Olympia ranks 10 of 164 — above 154 of the 163 other Washington cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +207.1% against the cohort median of 183.9. 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
Olympia's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Washington cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Olympia's 564.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Port Angeles (566.2), Vancouver (582.3), Federal Way (545.4), Yakima (544.3). 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 14.1% of the 2,231 Part I offenses reported in Olympia for 2024, against a median of 9.2% across comparable Washington cities — a gap of 4.9 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 504.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 564.8 in 2024 (+12.1%). The highest observed value was 576.3 in 2023 and the lowest 454.7 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Olympia'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.
Olympia's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.2 Census sq mi, Olympia logged 105.2 property and 17.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Olympia's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (62% of 2,231 offenses; mix index 4,284).
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.2 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
-10.7%
3847.3 → 3435.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-2%
576.3 → 564.8/100K
Property offenses lead Olympia's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,916
3435.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,392
2495.7
-
Burglary
317
568.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
207
371.1
-
Arson
8
14.3
-
Violent Crime
315
564.8
352
Aggravated Assault
215
385.5
-
Robbery
61
109.4
-
Rape
35
62.8
-
Murder
4
7.2
-
Olympia Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Olympia 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
Olympia Police Department
Reporting agency for Olympia NIBRS-participating
Olympia Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Olympia's 2,231 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 Washington
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Washington cities closest to Olympia in population. Their populations run from 46,079 to 64,736, against 55,775 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Olympia at 564.8/100K violent and 3,435.2/100K property - matched below outside Washington (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Olympia reported 315 violent crimes and 1,916 property crimes, for a total of 2,231 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Olympia?
From 2023 to 2024, Olympia's violent crime rate decreased by 2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 10.7%.
What is the most common crime in Olympia?
The most common crime type in Olympia is larceny-theft, accounting for 62.4% of all reported crimes (1,392 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Olympia'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 Olympia, WA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.