Portage, MI carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 21% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Portage, MI shows violent crime at 277.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,974.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 21% below 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
277.2/100K violent
2974.7/100K property
-21% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Portage, MI
Comparable rate records
Portage's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Michigan cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Portage's 277.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Reading (277.3), Oscoda Township (277.4), Vernon (277.4), Madison Heights (276.7). 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 222.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 277.2 in 2024 (+24.4%). The highest observed value was 317.6 in 2022 and the lowest 222.9 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 8.5% of the 1,607 Part I offenses reported in Portage for 2024, against a median of 16.8% across comparable Michigan cities — a gap of 8.3 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.
Position in the state cohort
Portage sits mid-pack among comparable Michigan cities
At 277.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Portage ranks 129 of 366 — above 237 of the 365 other Michigan cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +48.3% against the cohort median of 187.0. 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 Portage'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.
Portage's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 32.2 Census sq mi, Portage logged 45.6 property and 4.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Portage's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (78% of 1,607 offenses; mix index 6,265).
Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (32.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-12.2%
3386.6 → 2974.7/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+2.9%
269.5 → 277.2/100K
Property offenses lead Portage's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs MI
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,470
2974.7
1395.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,258
2545.7
-
-
Burglary
133
269.1
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
79
159.9
-
-
Arson
6
12.1
-
-
Violent Crime
137
277.2
431.4
352
Aggravated Assault
103
208.4
-
-
Rape
24
48.6
-
-
Robbery
10
20.2
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Portage Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Portage property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Portage Police Department
Reporting agency for Portage NIBRS-participating
Portage Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Portage's 1,607 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 Michigan
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Michigan cities closest to Portage in population. Their populations run from 42,880 to 53,891, against 49,416 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Portage reported 137 violent crimes and 1,470 property crimes, for a total of 1,607 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Portage?
From 2023 to 2024, Portage's violent crime rate increased by 2.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.2%.
What is the most common crime in Portage?
The most common crime type in Portage is larceny-theft, accounting for 78.3% of all reported crimes (1,258 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Portage 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 Portage, MI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.