River Falls, WI has a A safety grade (80/100) with a violent crime rate of 128 per 100,000, 64% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
River Falls (17,171 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then WI and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-08-24
River Falls, WI carries a PlainCrime A safety grade with violent crime 64% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, River Falls, WI shows violent crime at 128.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 861.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 64% 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.
2021–2024 direction
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 30.4 per 100,000 in 2021 to 128.1 in 2024 (+321.2%). The highest observed value was 131.0 in 2023 and the lowest 30.4 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Small-count caution
River Falls reported 22 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 17,171. 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 River Falls's 128.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Marathon City (128.7), Niagara (127.3), Beloit Town (129.1), Reedsburg (126.9). 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 128.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, River Falls ranks 92 of 222 — above 130 of the 221 other Wisconsin cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +19.7% against the cohort median of 107.1. 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 River Falls'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 22 reported violent incidents in a population of 17,171. 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 7.4 Census sq mi, River Falls logged 19.9 property and 3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
River Falls's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (74% of 170 offenses; mix index 5,696).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
River Falls offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (7.4 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 | 148 | 861.9 |
| Larceny-Theft | 126 | 733.8 |
| Burglary | 17 | 99 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 5 | 29.1 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 22 | 128.1 |
| Aggravated Assault | 16 | 93.2 |
| Rape | 3 | 17.5 |
| Robbery | 2 | 11.6 |
| Murder | 1 | 5.8 |
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2021-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Comparable | 16,439 | 30.4 | 139.9 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 17,169 | 58.2 | 599.9 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 16,796 | 131 | 958.6 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 17,171 | 128.1 | 861.9 |
River Falls Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind River Falls's 170 reported offenses (4-year span 2021-2024).
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 Wisconsin cities closest to River Falls in population. Their populations run from 16,443 to 18,035, against 17,171 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
River Falls sits at 128.1/100K violent (grade A); the Wisconsin cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
River Falls at 128.1/100K violent and 861.9/100K property - matched below outside Wisconsin (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
128.1/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
861.9/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, River Falls reported 22 violent crimes and 148 property crimes, for a total of 170 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, River Falls's violent crime rate decreased by 2.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 10.1%.
The most common crime type in River Falls is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.1% of all reported crimes (126 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: River Falls 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 River Falls's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 River Falls, WI 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. River Falls is scored in the mid-size municipal band (17,171 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.