South Amboy, NJ has a B safety grade (74/100) with a violent crime rate of 139 per 100,000, 60% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
South Amboy (10,781 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then NJ and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-09-05
South Amboy, NJ is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 60% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, South Amboy, NJ shows violent crime at 139.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,391.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 60% 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.
Small-count caution
South Amboy reported 15 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 10,781. 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 South Amboy's 139.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are West Orange (139.8), Sea Isle City (141.0), Brick Township (137.3), North Brunswick Township (137.2). 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
At 139.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, South Amboy ranks 117 of 417 — above 300 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +104.2% against the cohort median of 68.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 64.7% of reported property offenses in South Amboy, against a cohort median of 82.1%. The remainder is burglary (25) and motor vehicle theft (28). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 129.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 139.1 in 2024 (+7.1%). The highest observed value was 171.4 in 2023 and the lowest 129.4 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate South Amboy'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 15 reported violent incidents in a population of 10,781. 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 1.5 Census sq mi, South Amboy logged 97.5 property and 9.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
South Amboy's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (59% of 165 offenses; mix index 4,010).
Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
South Amboy offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (1.5 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 | 150 | 1391.3 |
| Larceny-Theft | 97 | 899.7 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 28 | 259.7 |
| Burglary | 25 | 231.9 |
| Arson | 2 | 18.6 |
| Violent Crime | 15 | 139.1 |
| Aggravated Assault | 9 | 83.5 |
| Rape | 3 | 27.8 |
| Robbery | 2 | 18.6 |
| Murder | 1 | 9.3 |
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 9,235 | 129.9 | 790.5 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 9,536 | 136.3 | 755 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 9,277 | 129.4 | 1218.1 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 9,337 | 171.4 | 1167.4 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 10,781 | 139.1 | 1391.3 |
South Amboy Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind South Amboy's 165 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.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the New Jersey cities closest to South Amboy in population. Their populations run from 10,412 to 11,028, against 10,781 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
South Amboy sits at 139.1/100K violent (grade B); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
South Amboy at 139.1/100K violent and 1,391.3/100K property - matched below outside New Jersey (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
139.1/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
1,391.3/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, South Amboy reported 15 violent crimes and 150 property crimes, for a total of 165 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, South Amboy's violent crime rate decreased by 18.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 19.2%.
The most common crime type in South Amboy is larceny-theft, accounting for 58.8% of all reported crimes (97 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: South Amboy 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 South Amboy's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 South Amboy, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the South Amboy, NJ 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. South Amboy is scored in the mid-size municipal band (10,781 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.