Santa Clara, CA has a B safety grade (60/100) with a violent crime rate of 182 per 100,000, 48% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Santa Clara, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 131,901 residents, Santa Clara 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.
Santa Clara, CA carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 48% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Santa Clara, CA shows violent crime at 182 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,501.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 48% 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
182/100K violent
2501.9/100K property
-48% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Santa Clara, CA
Comparable rate records
Santa Clara's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Santa Clara's 182.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Sutter Creek (182.5), Waterford (181.1), Menifee (182.8), San Gabriel (182.9). 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
Santa Clara reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 182.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Santa Clara ranks 353 of 458 — above 105 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -45.4% 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
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 6.8% of the 3,540 Part I offenses reported in Santa Clara for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 10.3 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 156.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 182.0 in 2024 (+16.6%). The highest observed value was 316.8 in 2022 and the lowest 102.6 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Santa Clara'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.
Santa Clara's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.3 Census sq mi, Santa Clara logged 180.6 property and 13.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Santa Clara's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (66% of 3,540 offenses; mix index 4,748).
Violent offenses are only 7% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.3 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-14.4%
212.7 → 182/100K
Property Crime Rate
-15.5%
2960 → 2501.9/100K
Property offenses lead Santa Clara's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
3,300
2501.9
1711
Larceny-Theft
2,336
1771
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
519
393.5
-
Burglary
445
337.4
-
Arson
13
9.9
-
Violent Crime
240
182
352
Aggravated Assault
136
103.1
-
Robbery
76
57.6
-
Rape
26
19.7
-
Murder
2
1.5
-
Santa Clara Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Santa Clara 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
Santa Clara Police Department
Reporting agency for Santa Clara NIBRS-participating
Santa Clara Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Santa Clara's 3,540 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 Santa Clara in population. Their populations run from 122,363 to 140,309, against 131,901 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Santa Clara at 182/100K violent and 2,501.9/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Santa Clara reported 240 violent crimes and 3,300 property crimes, for a total of 3,540 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Santa Clara?
From 2023 to 2024, Santa Clara's violent crime rate decreased by 14.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 15.5%.
What is the most common crime in Santa Clara?
The most common crime type in Santa Clara is larceny-theft, accounting for 66.0% of all reported crimes (2,336 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Santa Clara'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 Santa Clara, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.