Saratoga, CA has a A safety grade (86/100) with a violent crime rate of 89 per 100,000, 75% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Saratoga (29,185 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then CA and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Saratoga, CA is safer than most U.S. cities, and earns an A PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 75% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Saratoga, CA shows violent crime at 89.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 599.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 75% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
Position in the state cohort
At 89.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Saratoga ranks 428 of 458 — above 30 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -73.3% 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.
Small-count caution
Saratoga reported 26 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 29,185. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Saratoga's 89.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Winters (89.0), La Canada Flintridge (88.4), Yountville (90.0), Ross (88.0). 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 59.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 89.1 in 2024 (+49.3%). The highest observed value was 89.1 in 2024 and the lowest 40.9 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 58.9% of reported property offenses in Saratoga, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (56) and motor vehicle theft (16). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 12.9% of the 201 Part I offenses reported in Saratoga for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 4.2 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 Saratoga'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.
Based on 26 reported violent incidents in a population of 29,185. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Across 12.8 Census sq mi, Saratoga logged 13.7 property and 2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Saratoga leans on larceny-theft at 51% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,540.
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Saratoga offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (12.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 175 | 599.6 |
| Larceny-Theft | 103 | 352.9 |
| Burglary | 56 | 191.9 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 16 | 54.8 |
| Arson | 3 | 10.3 |
| Violent Crime | 26 | 89.1 |
| Aggravated Assault | 15 | 51.4 |
| Robbery | 7 | 24 |
| Rape | 4 | 13.7 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Lead series · fell across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 30,162 | 59.7 | 729.4 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 30,567 | - | - |
| 2022 | Comparable | 29,306 | 40.9 | 825.8 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 29,398 | 61.2 | 615.7 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 29,185 | 89.1 | 599.6 |
Saratoga Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Saratoga's 201 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Saratoga in population. Their populations run from 28,502 to 29,685, against 29,185 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Saratoga sits at 89.1/100K violent (grade A); the California cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Saratoga at 89.1/100K violent and 599.6/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
89.1/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
599.6/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (+45.6% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Saratoga reported 26 violent crimes and 175 property crimes, for a total of 201 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Saratoga's violent crime rate increased by 45.6%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2.6%.
The most common crime type in Saratoga is larceny-theft, accounting for 51.2% of all reported crimes (103 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Saratoga figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Saratoga's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Saratoga, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Saratoga, CA FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Saratoga is scored in the mid-size municipal band (29,185 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.