Portsmouth, RI has a A+ safety grade (96/100) with a violent crime rate of 11 per 100,000, 97% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Portsmouth (17,579 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then RI and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Portsmouth, RI carries a PlainCrime A+ safety grade with violent crime 97% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Portsmouth, RI shows violent crime at 11.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 347 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 97% 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.
Small-count caution
Portsmouth reported 2 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 17,579. 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 40.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 11.4 in 2024 (-72.1%). The highest observed value was 90.8 in 2023 and the lowest 11.3 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
At 11.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Portsmouth ranks 35 of 35 — above 0 of the 34 other Rhode Island cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -84.0% against the cohort median of 71.2. 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
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Portsmouth's 11.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are West Greenwich (14.6), Foster (21.9), Bristol (27.0), Little Compton (27.8). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 3.2% of the 63 Part I offenses reported in Portsmouth for 2024, against a median of 10.7% across comparable Rhode Island cities — a gap of 7.5 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.
Based on 2 reported violent incidents in a population of 17,579. 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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Across 23 Census sq mi, Portsmouth logged 2.6 property and 0.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Portsmouth's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (79% of 63 offenses; mix index 6,470).
Violent offenses are only 3% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Portsmouth offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (23 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 61 | 347 |
| Larceny-Theft | 50 | 284.4 |
| Burglary | 7 | 39.8 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 4 | 22.8 |
| Arson | 1 | 5.7 |
| Violent Crime | 2 | 11.4 |
| Rape | 1 | 5.7 |
| Aggravated Assault | 1 | 5.7 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 |
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 17,162 | 40.8 | 338 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 17,696 | 62.2 | 350.4 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 17,716 | 11.3 | 350 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 17,625 | 90.8 | 278 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 17,579 | 11.4 | 347 |
Portsmouth Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Portsmouth's 63 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Rhode Island cities closest to Portsmouth in population. Their populations run from 12,796 to 22,262, against 17,579 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Portsmouth sits at 11.4/100K violent (grade A+); the Rhode Island cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Portsmouth at 11.4/100K violent and 347/100K property - matched below outside Rhode Island (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
11.4/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
347/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Portsmouth reported 2 violent crimes and 61 property crimes, for a total of 63 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Portsmouth's violent crime rate decreased by 87.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 24.8%.
The most common crime type in Portsmouth is larceny-theft, accounting for 79.4% of all reported crimes (50 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.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Portsmouth's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Portsmouth, RI 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. Portsmouth is scored in the mid-size municipal band (17,579 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.