San Jose, CA has a F safety grade (17/100) with a violent crime rate of 607 per 100,000, 72% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
San Jose, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 956,840 residents, San Jose 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 Jose, CA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 72% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, San Jose, CA shows violent crime at 606.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,587.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 72% 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
606.8/100K violent
2587.9/100K property
+72% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for San Jose, CA
Comparable rate records
San Jose's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to San Jose's 606.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Antioch (606.8), East Palo Alto (607.3), Yucca Valley (605.6), Palm Springs (603.4). 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.
Position in the state cohort
San Jose reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 606.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, San Jose ranks 84 of 458 — above 374 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +84.7% 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 424.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 606.8 in 2024 (+42.8%). The highest observed value was 634.5 in 2023 and the lowest 424.9 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 58.9% of reported property offenses in San Jose, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (4,086) and motor vehicle theft (6,101). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate San Jose'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 Jose's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 177.9 Census sq mi, San Jose logged 139.2 property and 32.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
San Jose leans on larceny-theft at 48% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,022.
Violent offenses are 19% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (177.9 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-4.4%
634.5 → 606.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
+0.9%
2565.1 → 2587.9/100K
Property offenses lead San Jose's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
24,762
2587.9
1711
Larceny-Theft
14,575
1523.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
6,101
637.6
-
Burglary
4,086
427
-
Arson
147
15.4
-
Violent Crime
5,806
606.8
352
Aggravated Assault
3,693
386
-
Robbery
1,347
140.8
-
Rape
740
77.3
-
Murder
26
2.7
-
San Jose 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 Jose property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
San Jose Police Department
Reporting agency for San Jose NIBRS-participating
San Jose Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind San Jose's 30,568 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
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 Jose in population. Their populations run from 338,488 to 1,389,024, against 956,840 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
San Jose at 606.8/100K violent and 2,587.9/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, San Jose reported 5,806 violent crimes and 24,762 property crimes, for a total of 30,568 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in San Jose?
From 2023 to 2024, San Jose's violent crime rate decreased by 4.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 0.9%.
What is the most common crime in San Jose?
The most common crime type in San Jose is larceny-theft, accounting for 47.7% of all reported crimes (14,575 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: San Jose'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 Jose, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.