Penn Hills, PA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 5% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Penn Hills, PA shows violent crime at 369.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,053.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 5% 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
369.9/100K violent
1053.5/100K property
+5% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Penn Hills, PA
Position in the state cohort
Penn Hills reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 369.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Penn Hills ranks 69 of 838 — above 769 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +466.3% against the cohort median of 65.3. 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
Penn Hills's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Penn Hills's 369.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Greenville (365.8), Erie (375.6), Glassport (376.6), Coraopolis (378.9). 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 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 251.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 369.9 in 2024 (+47.4%). The highest observed value was 369.9 in 2024 and the lowest 251.0 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 26.0% of the 558 Part I offenses reported in Penn Hills for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 16.0 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 70.7% of reported property offenses in Penn Hills, against a cohort median of 85.9%. The remainder is burglary (53) and motor vehicle theft (68). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Penn Hills'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.
Penn Hills's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 19.1 Census sq mi, Penn Hills logged 21.6 property and 7.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Penn Hills leans on larceny-theft at 52% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,353.
Violent offenses are 26% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (19.1 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
-16.7%
1264.7 → 1053.5/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+11.2%
332.6 → 369.9/100K
Property offenses lead Penn Hills's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
413
1053.5
1711
Larceny-Theft
292
744.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
68
173.5
-
Burglary
53
135.2
-
Arson
8
20.4
-
Violent Crime
145
369.9
352
Aggravated Assault
104
265.3
-
Rape
23
58.7
-
Robbery
17
43.4
-
Murder
1
2.6
-
Penn Hills 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.
Penn Hills property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Penn Hills Police Department
Reporting agency for Penn Hills NIBRS-participating
Penn Hills Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Penn Hills's 558 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
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 Pennsylvania
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Pennsylvania cities closest to Penn Hills in population. Their populations run from 35,764 to 42,656, against 39,203 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Penn Hills at 369.9/100K violent and 1,053.5/100K property - matched below outside Pennsylvania (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Penn Hills reported 145 violent crimes and 413 property crimes, for a total of 558 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Penn Hills?
From 2023 to 2024, Penn Hills's violent crime rate increased by 11.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 16.7%.
What is the most common crime in Penn Hills?
The most common crime type in Penn Hills is larceny-theft, accounting for 52.3% of all reported crimes (292 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Penn Hills 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Penn Hills, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.