Princeton, MA has a A+ safety grade (91/100) with a violent crime rate of 56 per 100,000, 84% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small city
Princeton is a small municipal reporter (3,579 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with MA and U.S. context.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Princeton, MA is safer than most U.S. cities, and earns an A+ PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 84% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Princeton, MA shows violent crime at 55.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 363.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 84% 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
Princeton reported 2 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 3,579. 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.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Princeton's 55.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Stow (55.6), Arlington (55.4), Harvard (56.4), Southborough (56.5). 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.
Position in the state cohort
At 55.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Princeton ranks 259 of 317 — above 58 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -61.5% against the cohort median of 145.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 53.8% of reported property offenses in Princeton, against a cohort median of 78.1%. The remainder is burglary (6) and motor vehicle theft (0). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 13.3% of the 15 Part I offenses reported in Princeton for 2024, against a median of 21.5% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 8.2 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 Princeton'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 3,579. 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.
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.
Across 35.4 Census sq mi, Princeton logged 0.4 property and 0.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Princeton leans on larceny-theft at 47% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,956.
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Princeton offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (35.4 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 | 13 | 363.2 |
| Larceny-Theft | 7 | 195.6 |
| Burglary | 6 | 167.6 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 0 | 0 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 2 | 55.9 |
| Aggravated Assault | 2 | 55.9 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Rape | 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 | 3,477 | 0 | 345.1 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 3,522 | 56.8 | 511.1 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 3,521 | 142 | 227.2 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 3,522 | 85.2 | 198.8 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 3,579 | 55.9 | 363.2 |
Princeton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Princeton's 15 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 Massachusetts cities closest to Princeton in population. Their populations run from 3,489 to 3,779, against 3,579 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Princeton reported 2 violent crimes and 13 property crimes, for a total of 15 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Princeton's violent crime rate decreased by 34.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 82.7%.
The most common crime type in Princeton is larceny-theft, accounting for 46.7% of all reported crimes (7 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Princeton 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.
Small-city rate methodology for how Princeton's small city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Princeton, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Princeton, MA FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Princeton is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (3,579 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.