San Francisco, CA has a F safety grade (11/100) with a violent crime rate of 597 per 100,000, 69% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
San Francisco, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 802,856 residents, San Francisco is a very 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 Francisco, CA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 69% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, San Francisco, CA shows violent crime at 596.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,929.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 69% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
596.5/100K violent
3929.1/100K property
+69% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for San Francisco, CA
Comparable rate records
San Francisco's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to San Francisco's 596.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Oxnard (596.4), Anaheim (596.2), Montague (598.8), Lawndale (593.7). 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.
Position in the state cohort
San Francisco reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 596.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, San Francisco ranks 89 of 458 — above 369 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +81.6% against the cohort median of 328.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 13.2% of the 36,334 Part I offenses reported in San Francisco for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 3.9 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 higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 544.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 596.5 in 2024 (+9.6%). The highest observed value was 710.2 in 2023 and the lowest 544.1 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate San Francisco'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 very large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
San Francisco's 2024 municipal footprint
San Francisco leans on larceny-theft at 58% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,845.
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-31.7%
5753.9 → 3929.1/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-16%
710.2 → 596.5/100K
Property offenses lead San Francisco's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs CA
Property Crime
31,545
3929.1
1711
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
21,026
2618.9
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
5,401
672.7
-
-
Burglary
5,118
637.5
-
-
Arson
266
33.1
-
-
Violent Crime
4,789
596.5
352
476.8
Aggravated Assault
2,329
290.1
-
-
Robbery
2,145
267.2
-
-
Rape
280
34.9
-
-
Murder
35
4.4
-
-
San Francisco 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.
San Francisco property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
San Francisco Police Department
Reporting agency for San Francisco Summary Reporting (SRS)
San Francisco Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind San Francisco's 36,334 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 California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to San Francisco in population. Their populations run from 320,148 to 956,840, against 802,856 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
San Francisco at 596.5/100K violent and 3,929.1/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, San Francisco reported 4,789 violent crimes and 31,545 property crimes, for a total of 36,334 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in San Francisco?
From 2023 to 2024, San Francisco's violent crime rate decreased by 16%, and the property crime rate decreased by 31.7%.
What is the most common crime in San Francisco?
The most common crime type in San Francisco is larceny-theft, accounting for 57.9% of all reported crimes (21,026 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: San Francisco'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 (very 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 Francisco, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.