Payson, UT has a A safety grade (81/100) with a violent crime rate of 128 per 100,000, 64% below the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city

Payson, UT Crime Rate & Safety

Payson (25,051 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then UT and national benchmarks.

Data updated 2026-08-24

My saved cities Subscribe to annual updates About this data
A
Safety grade
698.6
Property / 100K
127.7
Violent / 100K
25K
Population

Payson, UT carries a PlainCrime A safety grade with violent crime 64% below the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Payson, UT shows violent crime at 127.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 698.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 64% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.

  • A safety grade
  • 127.7/100K violent
  • 698.6/100K property
  • -64% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Payson, UT

Comparable rate records

Payson's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Utah cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Payson's 127.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Layton (129.7), Price (120.9), West Bountiful (120.1), American Fork/Cedar Hills (119.7). 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

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 87.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 127.7 in 2024 (+45.5%). The highest observed value was 127.7 in 2024 and the lowest 84.5 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Position in the state cohort

Payson sits mid-pack among comparable Utah cities

At 127.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Payson ranks 42 of 77 — above 35 of the 76 other Utah cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -10.0% against the cohort median of 141.9. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.

Property counts dominate Payson'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.

Payson's 2024 municipal footprint

Across 13.2 Census sq mi, Payson logged 13.3 property and 2.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.

Payson's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (73% of 207 offenses; mix index 5,576).

Violent offenses are 15% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.

Payson offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (13.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.

Both rates shifted (2023→2024)

Violent Crime Rate
+5.6%
120.9 → 127.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
+5.7%
660.9 → 698.6/100K

Property offenses lead Payson's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 175 698.6
Larceny-Theft 152 606.8
Burglary 13 51.9
Motor Vehicle Theft 10 39.9
Arson 1 4
Violent Crime 32 127.7
Aggravated Assault 18 71.9
Rape 14 55.9
Murder 0 0
Robbery 0 0

Payson Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Payson property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
698.6/100K 5.7% vs 2023
5001,0001,5002,000 20202021202220232024 699

Payson violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
127.7/100K 5.6% vs 2023
8090100110120130 20202021202220232024 128
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 20,498 87.8 1849
2021 Comparable 21,291 84.5 1099.1
2022 Comparable 22,989 87 835.2
2023 Comparable 23,151 120.9 660.9
2024 Comparable 25,051 127.7 698.6

How Payson sits among UT peers

POP-MIDCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-LOWPROP-LOWQUAD-LLGRADE-ANIBRSUCR-2024
Payson vs. similar-size UT cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Payson vs. similar-size UT cities, violent vs. property crime 34 829 Violent crime per 100K → 332 6,343 Property crime per 100K → Payson SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Payson Police Department

Reporting agency for Payson NIBRS-participating

Payson Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Payson's 207 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 Utah

Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Utah cities closest to Payson in population. Their populations run from 19,714 to 26,187, against 25,051 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Payson's closest UT violent-rate matches

Payson sits at 127.7/100K violent (grade A); the Utah cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

Out-of-state peers for Payson

Payson at 127.7/100K violent and 698.6/100K property - matched below outside Utah (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).

More about Payson's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Payson?

In 2024, Payson reported 32 violent crimes and 175 property crimes, for a total of 207 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Payson?

From 2023 to 2024, Payson's violent crime rate increased by 5.6%, and the property crime rate increased by 5.7%.

What is the most common crime in Payson?

The most common crime type in Payson is larceny-theft, accounting for 73.4% of all reported crimes (152 incidents in 2024).

Mid-size read: Payson 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.

Federal sources for this mid-size row
Cite, share, or save this city record

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Payson, UT 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. Payson is scored in the mid-size municipal band (25,051 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.