Princeton, NJ has a A safety grade (89/100) with a violent crime rate of 49 per 100,000, 86% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Princeton (30,838 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then NJ and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Princeton, NJ is safer than most U.S. cities, and earns an A PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 86% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Princeton, NJ shows violent crime at 48.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 716.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 86% 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 15 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 30,838. 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 48.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Oceanport (48.6), Bergenfield (48.5), South River (49.3), Bogota (49.4). 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
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 35.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 48.6 in 2024 (+39.1%). The highest observed value was 56.0 in 2023 and the lowest 29.2 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 48.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Princeton ranks 251 of 417 — above 166 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -29.0% against the cohort median of 68.5. 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 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 15 reported violent incidents in a population of 30,838. 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 17.9 Census sq mi, Princeton logged 12.3 property and 0.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Princeton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (83% of 236 offenses; mix index 6,954).
Violent offenses are only 6% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Princeton offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (17.9 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 | 221 | 716.6 |
| Larceny-Theft | 195 | 632.3 |
| Burglary | 24 | 77.8 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 2 | 6.5 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 15 | 48.6 |
| Aggravated Assault | 10 | 32.4 |
| Robbery | 5 | 16.2 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Rape | 0 | 0 |
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 31,458 | 35 | 623.1 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 32,436 | 30.8 | 690.6 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 30,797 | 29.2 | 733.8 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 30,368 | 56 | 770.5 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 30,838 | 48.6 | 716.6 |
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Jersey cities closest to Princeton in population. Their populations run from 30,014 to 31,546, against 30,838 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Princeton sits at 48.6/100K violent (grade A); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Princeton at 48.6/100K violent and 716.6/100K property - matched below outside New Jersey (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
48.6/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
716.6/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (-13.2% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Princeton reported 15 violent crimes and 221 property crimes, for a total of 236 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Princeton's violent crime rate decreased by 13.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 7%.
The most common crime type in Princeton is larceny-theft, accounting for 82.6% of all reported crimes (195 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Princeton 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 Princeton's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Princeton, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Princeton, NJ 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 in the mid-size municipal band (30,838 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.