Pottsville, PA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 6% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Pottsville, PA shows violent crime at 329.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,347.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 6% 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
329.3/100K violent
1347.2/100K property
-6% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Pottsville, PA
Position in the state cohort
Pottsville reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 329.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Pottsville ranks 80 of 838 — above 758 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +404.2% 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
Pottsville's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Pottsville's 329.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Tinicum Township, Delaware County (329.0), Monongahela (330.2), Gaines Township (331.7), Bangor (332.7). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 19.6% of the 224 Part I offenses reported in Pottsville for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 9.6 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 403.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 329.3 in 2024 (-18.4%). The highest observed value was 403.5 in 2020 and the lowest 269.3 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Pottsville'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.
Pottsville's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 4.2 Census sq mi, Pottsville logged 43.2 property and 10.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Pottsville's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (68% of 224 offenses; mix index 4,928).
Violent offenses are 20% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (4.2 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
+4.5%
1289.3 → 1347.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-0.2%
329.8 → 329.3/100K
Property offenses lead Pottsville's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
180
1347.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
152
1137.6
-
Burglary
22
164.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
6
44.9
-
Arson
1
7.5
-
Violent Crime
44
329.3
352
Aggravated Assault
32
239.5
-
Rape
8
59.9
-
Robbery
4
29.9
-
Murder
0
0
-
Pottsville 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.
Pottsville property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Pottsville Police Department
Reporting agency for Pottsville Summary Reporting (SRS)
Pottsville Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Pottsville's 224 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.
Similar-Size Cities in Pennsylvania
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Pennsylvania cities closest to Pottsville in population. Their populations run from 13,248 to 13,625, against 13,361 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Pottsville reported 44 violent crimes and 180 property crimes, for a total of 224 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Pottsville?
From 2023 to 2024, Pottsville's violent crime rate decreased by 0.2%, and the property crime rate increased by 4.5%.
What is the most common crime in Pottsville?
The most common crime type in Pottsville is larceny-theft, accounting for 67.9% of all reported crimes (152 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Pottsville 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 Pottsville, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.