Penns Grove, NJ carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 63% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Penns Grove, NJ shows violent crime at 574.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,539.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 63% 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
574.7/100K violent
1539.4/100K property
+63% vs U.S.
The verdict
Penns Grove earns a D safety grade: violent crime runs 63% above the U.S. average, placing it among the highest-crime cities in the country.
D
PlainCrime safety grade
+63%
violent crime vs. U.S. average
11th
percentile of 7,769 U.S. cities
1,539.4
property crimes per 100K
Based on 28 reported violent incidents in a population of 4,872. 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.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Penns Grove, NJ
Position in the state cohort
Penns Grove reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable New Jersey cities
At 574.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Penns Grove ranks 12 of 417 — above 405 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +743.4% against the cohort median of 68.1. 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 27.2% of the 103 Part I offenses reported in Penns Grove for 2024, against a median of 7.1% across comparable New Jersey cities — a gap of 20.0 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.
Small-count caution
The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable
Penns Grove reported 28 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 4,872. 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.
Comparable rate records
Penns Grove's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the New Jersey cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Penns Grove's 574.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are South Hackensack Township (579.3), Newark (581.2), Jersey City (561.6), Seaside Heights (546.0). 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1122.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 574.7 in 2024 (-48.8%). The highest observed value was 1122.6 in 2020 and the lowest 551.0 in 2021. 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 52.0% of reported property offenses in Penns Grove, against a cohort median of 82.1%. The remainder is burglary (23) and motor vehicle theft (13). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Penns Grove'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 28 reported violent incidents in a population of 4,872. 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.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-36.6%
907 → 574.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
-28.2%
2143.9 → 1539.4/100K
Property offenses lead Penns Grove's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NJ
Property Crime
75
1539.4
1711
1395.7
Larceny-Theft
39
800.5
-
-
Burglary
23
472.1
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
13
266.8
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
28
574.7
352
215.7
Aggravated Assault
21
431
-
-
Robbery
3
61.6
-
-
Murder
2
41.1
-
-
Rape
2
41.1
-
-
Penns Grove Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Penns Grove property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Property crime rate (2024)
1,539.4/100K↓28.2%vs 2023
Penns Grove violent crime rate trend
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
Violent crime rate (2024)
574.7/100K↓36.6%vs 2023
Year
Coverage
Population
Violent Rate
Property Rate
Total Crimes
2020
Comparable
4,721
1122.6
4299.9
256
2021
Comparable
4,719
551
1589.3
101
2022
Comparable
4,821
1037.1
1617.9
128
2023
Comparable
4,851
907
2143.9
148
2024
Comparable
4,872
574.7
1539.4
103
How Penns Grove sits among NJ peers
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Reporting Agency
Penns Grove Police Department NIBRS-participating
Penns Grove's crime figures on this page originate from Penns Grove Police Department's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
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 New Jersey
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Jersey cities closest to Penns Grove in population. Their populations run from 4,756 to 5,062, against 4,872 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
These New Jersey cities report the closest violent-crime rates to Penns Grove's 574.7/100K (same FBI UCR vintage rules; size peers above are excluded so the two lists stay distinct).
Penns Grove has a violent crime rate of 574.7 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1539.4 per 100,000, based on 2024 FBI UCR data.
Is Penns Grove, NJ safe? ▼
Penns Grove receives a safety grade of D (Below Average), with a safety score of 29/100. The violent crime rate is 63% above the national average and 166% above the New Jersey average.
What is the population of Penns Grove, NJ? ▼
The reporting population for Penns Grove is 4,872 as of 2024.
How many crimes were reported in Penns Grove? ▼
In 2024, Penns Grove reported 28 violent crimes and 75 property crimes, for a total of 103 reported offenses.
How do Penns Grove's reported offenses compare with its population? ▼
In 2024, Penns Grove recorded about one reported offense per 47 residents and one reported violent offense per 174 residents. These ratios count reported offenses, not distinct victims, and are not a person's probability of victimization.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Penns Grove? ▼
From 2023 to 2024, Penns Grove's violent crime rate decreased by 36.6%, and the property crime rate decreased by 28.2%.
What is the most common crime in Penns Grove? ▼
The most common crime type in Penns Grove is larceny-theft, accounting for 37.9% of all reported crimes (39 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Penns Grove 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 Penns Grove, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.