Onalaska, TX is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 30% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Onalaska, TX shows violent crime at 458.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,283.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 30% 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
458.4/100K violent
1283.6/100K property
+30% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Onalaska, TX
Small-count caution
The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable
Onalaska reported 15 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 3,272. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Position in the state cohort
Onalaska reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 458.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Onalaska ranks 81 of 686 — above 605 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +156.2% against the cohort median of 178.9. 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
Onalaska's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Onalaska's 458.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fort Worth (458.4), Pittsburg (458.3), Bellmead (459.8), Bremond (456.1). 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 26.3% of the 57 Part I offenses reported in Onalaska for 2024, against a median of 14.3% across comparable Texas cities — a gap of 12.0 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 59.5% of reported property offenses in Onalaska, against a cohort median of 71.6%. The remainder is burglary (9) and motor vehicle theft (8). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 499.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 458.4 in 2024 (-8.1%). The highest observed value was 682.2 in 2022 and the lowest 217.1 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Onalaska'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.
Based on 15 reported violent incidents in a population of 3,272. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Onalaska's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 5.4 Census sq mi, Onalaska logged 7.7 property and 2.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Onalaska leans on larceny-theft at 44% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,619.
Violent offenses are 26% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (5.4 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
-29.9%
1831.5 → 1283.6/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-16.6%
549.5 → 458.4/100K
Property offenses lead Onalaska's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs TX
Property Crime
42
1283.6
2058.2
Larceny-Theft
25
764.1
-
Burglary
9
275.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
8
244.5
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
15
458.4
394.7
Rape
7
213.9
-
Robbery
4
122.2
-
Aggravated Assault
4
122.2
-
Murder
0
0
-
Onalaska Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Onalaska 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Onalaska: 458 violent, 1284 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Lytle: 31 violent, 2967 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Early: 400 violent, 1260 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Grand Saline: 454 violent, 696 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Crane: 60 violent, 271 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Castroville: 219 violent, 1529 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Dilley: 179 violent, 597 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Combes: 126 violent, 1259 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Kenedy: 326 violent, 1867 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Onalaska Police Department
Reporting agency for Onalaska NIBRS-participating
Onalaska Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Onalaska's 57 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 Texas
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Texas cities closest to Onalaska in population. Their populations run from 3,177 to 3,375, against 3,272 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Onalaska reported 15 violent crimes and 42 property crimes, for a total of 57 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Onalaska?
From 2023 to 2024, Onalaska's violent crime rate decreased by 16.6%, and the property crime rate decreased by 29.9%.
What is the most common crime in Onalaska?
The most common crime type in Onalaska is larceny-theft, accounting for 43.9% of all reported crimes (25 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Onalaska is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Onalaska, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.