Portsmouth, NH carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 47% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Portsmouth, NH shows violent crime at 187.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,284.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 47% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
187.2/100K violent
1284.3/100K property
-47% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Portsmouth, NH
Position in the state cohort
Portsmouth reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable New Hampshire cities
At 187.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Portsmouth ranks 15 of 186 — above 171 of the 185 other New Hampshire cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +366.6% against the cohort median of 40.1. 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
Portsmouth's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the New Hampshire cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Portsmouth's 187.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Farmington (189.0), Claremont (189.9), Center Harbor (191.0), Waterville Valley (192.7). 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 127.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 187.2 in 2024 (+47.3%). The highest observed value was 255.6 in 2021 and the lowest 127.1 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 12.7% of the 338 Part I offenses reported in Portsmouth for 2024, against a median of 7.1% across comparable New Hampshire cities — a gap of 5.6 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 counts dominate Portsmouth'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.
Portsmouth's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 15.7 Census sq mi, Portsmouth logged 18.8 property and 2.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Portsmouth's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (78% of 338 offenses; mix index 6,295).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (15.7 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+30.8%
143.1 → 187.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
+22.4%
1049.6 → 1284.3/100K
Property offenses lead Portsmouth's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NH
Property Crime
295
1284.3
1711
927.6
Larceny-Theft
265
1153.7
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
23
100.1
-
-
Burglary
7
30.5
-
-
Arson
3
13.1
-
-
Violent Crime
43
187.2
352
111.9
Aggravated Assault
32
139.3
-
-
Rape
9
39.2
-
-
Robbery
2
8.7
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Portsmouth Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Portsmouth 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
Portsmouth Police Department
Reporting agency for Portsmouth NIBRS-participating
Portsmouth Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Portsmouth's 338 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 New Hampshire
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Hampshire cities closest to Portsmouth in population. Their populations run from 16,477 to 26,974, against 22,969 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Portsmouth at 187.2/100K violent and 1,284.3/100K property - matched below outside New Hampshire (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Portsmouth reported 43 violent crimes and 295 property crimes, for a total of 338 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Portsmouth?
From 2023 to 2024, Portsmouth's violent crime rate increased by 30.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 22.4%.
What is the most common crime in Portsmouth?
The most common crime type in Portsmouth is larceny-theft, accounting for 78.4% of all reported crimes (265 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth, NH rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.