San Clemente, CA has a B safety grade (71/100) with a violent crime rate of 183 per 100,000, 48% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
San Clemente, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 61,692 residents, San Clemente is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
San Clemente, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 48% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, San Clemente, CA shows violent crime at 183.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,267.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 48% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
183.2/100K violent
1267.6/100K property
-48% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for San Clemente, CA
Comparable rate records
San Clemente's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to San Clemente's 183.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Burlingame (183.2), Folsom (183.4), San Gabriel (182.9), Menifee (182.8). 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.
Position in the state cohort
San Clemente reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 183.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, San Clemente ranks 349 of 458 — above 109 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -45.0% against the cohort median of 333.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 142.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 183.2 in 2024 (+28.7%). The highest observed value was 227.0 in 2022 and the lowest 83.5 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 12.6% of the 895 Part I offenses reported in San Clemente for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 4.5 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 San Clemente'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.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
San Clemente's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.4 Census sq mi, San Clemente logged 42.6 property and 6.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
San Clemente's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 895 offenses; mix index 4,454).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.4 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+21.6%
150.6 → 183.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-11.5%
1431.9 → 1267.6/100K
Property offenses lead San Clemente's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
782
1267.6
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
571
925.6
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
127
205.9
-
Burglary
84
136.2
-
Arson
10
16.2
-
Violent Crime
113
183.2
476.8
Aggravated Assault
82
132.9
-
Robbery
26
42.1
-
Rape
4
6.5
-
Murder
1
1.6
-
San Clemente Crime Trend (2020-2024)
San Clemente property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
San Clemente Police Department
Reporting agency for San Clemente NIBRS-participating
San Clemente Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind San Clemente's 895 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.
Similar-Size Cities in California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to San Clemente in population. Their populations run from 60,352 to 62,891, against 61,692 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
San Clemente at 183.2/100K violent and 1,267.6/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, San Clemente reported 113 violent crimes and 782 property crimes, for a total of 895 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in San Clemente?
From 2023 to 2024, San Clemente's violent crime rate increased by 21.6%, and the property crime rate decreased by 11.5%.
What is the most common crime in San Clemente?
The most common crime type in San Clemente is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.8% of all reported crimes (571 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: San Clemente's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 San Clemente, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.