Palmdale, CA has a D safety grade (29/100) with a violent crime rate of 551 per 100,000, 57% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Palmdale, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 158,983 residents, Palmdale is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Palmdale, CA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 57% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Palmdale, CA shows violent crime at 551 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,865 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 57% 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
551/100K violent
1865/100K property
+57% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Palmdale, CA
Comparable rate records
Palmdale's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Palmdale's 551.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Ukiah (552.9), San Leandro (548.7), Bakersfield (554.6), Paramount (547.1). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Palmdale reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 551.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Palmdale ranks 107 of 458 — above 351 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +67.7% against the cohort median of 328.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 22.8% of the 3,841 Part I offenses reported in Palmdale for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 5.7 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 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 479.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 551.0 in 2024 (+15.0%). The highest observed value was 556.9 in 2022 and the lowest 479.0 in 2020. 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 58.8% of reported property offenses in Palmdale, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (399) and motor vehicle theft (824). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Palmdale'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.
Palmdale's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 106.1 Census sq mi, Palmdale logged 28 property and 8.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Palmdale leans on larceny-theft at 45% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,896.
Violent offenses are 23% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (106.1 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
+11.5%
1672.6 → 1865/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+8.6%
507.4 → 551/100K
Property offenses lead Palmdale's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
2,965
1865
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,742
1095.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
824
518.3
-
Burglary
399
251
-
Arson
39
24.5
-
Violent Crime
876
551
352
Aggravated Assault
581
365.4
-
Robbery
241
151.6
-
Rape
45
28.3
-
Murder
9
5.7
-
Palmdale 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.
Palmdale 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
Palmdale Police Department
Reporting agency for Palmdale Summary Reporting (SRS)
Palmdale Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Palmdale's 3,841 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 California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Palmdale in population. Their populations run from 150,893 to 168,725, against 158,983 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Palmdale reported 876 violent crimes and 2,965 property crimes, for a total of 3,841 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Palmdale?
From 2023 to 2024, Palmdale's violent crime rate increased by 8.6%, and the property crime rate increased by 11.5%.
What is the most common crime in Palmdale?
The most common crime type in Palmdale is larceny-theft, accounting for 45.4% of all reported crimes (1,742 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Palmdale'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 Palmdale, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.