San Marcos, CA has a B safety grade (72/100) with a violent crime rate of 222 per 100,000, 37% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
San Marcos, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 93,974 residents, San Marcos 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 Marcos, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 37% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, San Marcos, CA shows violent crime at 222.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 659.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 37% 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
222.4/100K violent
659.8/100K property
-37% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for San Marcos, CA
Comparable rate records
San Marcos's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to San Marcos's 222.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Temple City (221.2), Alhambra (224.5), Roseville (219.2), Orange (226.1). 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 Marcos sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 222.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, San Marcos ranks 316 of 458 — above 142 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -33.2% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 25.2% of the 829 Part I offenses reported in San Marcos for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 8.1 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 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 197.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 222.4 in 2024 (+12.6%). The highest observed value was 237.2 in 2023 and the lowest 197.6 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 60.6% of reported property offenses in San Marcos, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (142) and motor vehicle theft (102). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate San Marcos'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 Marcos's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 24.6 Census sq mi, San Marcos logged 25.2 property and 8.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
San Marcos leans on larceny-theft at 45% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,947.
Violent offenses are 25% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (24.6 sq mi); 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
-18.4%
808.7 → 659.8/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-6.2%
237.2 → 222.4/100K
Property offenses lead San Marcos's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs CA
Property Crime
620
659.8
1985.9
Larceny-Theft
376
400.1
-
Burglary
142
151.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
102
108.5
-
Arson
7
7.4
-
Violent Crime
209
222.4
476.8
Aggravated Assault
172
183
-
Robbery
30
31.9
-
Rape
6
6.4
-
Murder
1
1.1
-
San Marcos Crime Trend (2020-2024)
San Marcos 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 Marcos Police Department
Reporting agency for San Marcos NIBRS-participating
San Marcos Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind San Marcos's 829 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 Marcos in population. Their populations run from 89,767 to 98,217, against 93,974 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
San Marcos at 222.4/100K violent and 659.8/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, San Marcos reported 209 violent crimes and 620 property crimes, for a total of 829 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in San Marcos?
From 2023 to 2024, San Marcos's violent crime rate decreased by 6.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 18.4%.
What is the most common crime in San Marcos?
The most common crime type in San Marcos is larceny-theft, accounting for 45.4% of all reported crimes (376 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: San Marcos'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 Marcos, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.