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 FBI UCR + NIBRS
Sanford, FL Crime Rate & Safety
Compiled by PlainCrime, Independent crime-data publisher
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 carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 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.
The verdict
Sanford earns a D safety grade: violent crime runs 54% above the U.S. average, placing it among the highest-crime cities in the country.
D
PlainCrime safety grade
+54%
violent crime vs. U.S. average
12th
percentile of 7,769 U.S. cities
2,252.6
property crimes per 100K
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.
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
Property crime rate (2024)
2,252.6/100K↓19%vs 2023
Sanford violent crime rate trend
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
Violent crime rate (2024)
542.6/100K↓12.7%vs 2023
Year
Coverage
Population
Violent Rate
Property Rate
Total Crimes
2020
Comparable
62,342
819.7
2242.5
1,909
2021
Insufficient reporting
62,320
-
-
-
2022
Comparable
60,602
579.2
2966.9
2,149
2023
Comparable
64,218
621.3
2781.2
2,185
2024
Comparable
66,900
542.6
2252.6
1,870
How Sanford sits among FL peers
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Reporting Agency
Sanford Police Department Summary Reporting (SRS)
Sanford's crime figures on this page originate from Sanford Police Department's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
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.
These Florida cities report the closest violent-crime rates to Sanford's 542.6/100K (same FBI UCR vintage rules; size peers above are excluded so the two lists stay distinct).
Sanford has a violent crime rate of 542.6 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 2252.6 per 100,000, based on 2024 FBI UCR data.
Is Sanford, FL safe? ▼
Sanford receives a safety grade of D (Below Average), with a safety score of 26/100. The violent crime rate is 54% above the national average and 158% above the Florida average.
What is the population of Sanford, FL? ▼
The reporting population for Sanford is 66,900 as of 2024.
How many crimes were reported in Sanford? ▼
In 2024, Sanford reported 363 violent crimes and 1,507 property crimes, for a total of 1,870 reported offenses.
How do Sanford's reported offenses compare with its population? ▼
In 2024, Sanford recorded about one reported offense per 36 residents and one reported violent offense per 184 residents. These ratios count reported offenses, not distinct victims, and are not a person's probability of victimization.
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.