Sanford, FL has a D safety grade (26/100) with a violent crime rate of 543 per 100,000, 54% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Sanford, FL Crime Rate & Safety
At 66,900 residents, Sanford is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against FL and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Sanford, FL is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 54% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Sanford, FL shows violent crime at 542.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,252.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 54% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
542.6/100K violent
2252.6/100K property
+54% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Sanford, FL
Comparable rate records
Sanford's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Florida cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Sanford's 542.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Sarasota (549.4), Titusville (518.3), Arcadia (513.4), West Palm Beach (575.8). 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
Sanford reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Florida cities
At 542.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Sanford ranks 19 of 126 — above 107 of the 125 other Florida cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +181.6% against the cohort median of 192.7. 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 lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 819.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 542.6 in 2024 (-33.8%). The highest observed value was 819.7 in 2020 and the lowest 542.6 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 19.4% of the 1,870 Part I offenses reported in Sanford for 2024, against a median of 13.3% across comparable Florida cities — a gap of 6.2 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 Sanford'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.
Sanford's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 24.1 Census sq mi, Sanford logged 62.7 property and 15.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Sanford's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 1,870 offenses; mix index 4,465).
Violent offenses are 19% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (24.1 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
-19%
2781.2 → 2252.6/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-12.7%
621.3 → 542.6/100K
Property offenses lead Sanford's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs FL
Property Crime
1,507
2252.6
1030
Larceny-Theft
1,198
1790.7
-
Burglary
175
261.6
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
134
200.3
-
Arson
2
3
-
Violent Crime
363
542.6
210.3
Aggravated Assault
270
403.6
-
Robbery
62
92.7
-
Rape
27
40.4
-
Murder
4
6
-
Sanford 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.
Sanford 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Sanford: 543 violent, 2253 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Delray Beach: 422 violent, 2631 property per 100,000 (grade D)
St. Cloud: 189 violent, 758 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Ocala: 500 violent, 3049 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Wellington: 130 violent, 795 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Apopka: 431 violent, 2318 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Winter Haven: 236 violent, 1549 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Sarasota: 549 violent, 1616 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Bradenton: 449 violent, 1866 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Sanford Police Department
Reporting agency for Sanford Summary Reporting (SRS)
Sanford Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Sanford's 1,870 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 Florida
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Florida cities closest to Sanford in population. Their populations run from 57,503 to 70,046, against 66,900 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Sanford reported 363 violent crimes and 1,507 property crimes, for a total of 1,870 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Sanford?
From 2023 to 2024, Sanford's violent crime rate decreased by 12.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 19%.
What is the most common crime in Sanford?
The most common crime type in Sanford is larceny-theft, accounting for 64.1% of all reported crimes (1,198 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Sanford'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 Sanford, FL rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.