Sparks, NV has a D safety grade (38/100) with a violent crime rate of 394 per 100,000, 12% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Sparks, NV Crime Rate & Safety
At 110,807 residents, Sparks is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against NV and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Sparks, NV carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 12% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Sparks, NV shows violent crime at 394.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,583.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 12% 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
394.4/100K violent
2583.8/100K property
+12% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Sparks, NV
Comparable rate records
Sparks's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Nevada cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Sparks's 394.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Elko (397.9), North Las Vegas (388.9), Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (429.8), Henderson (272.4). 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 76.0% of reported property offenses in Sparks, against a cohort median of 66.8%. The remainder is burglary (334) and motor vehicle theft (352). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 13.2% of the 3,300 Part I offenses reported in Sparks for 2024, against a median of 17.2% across comparable Nevada cities — a gap of 3.9 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 417.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 394.4 in 2024 (-5.5%). The highest observed value was 436.4 in 2021 and the lowest 391.2 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Sparks sits mid-pack among comparable Nevada cities
At 394.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Sparks ranks 6 of 11 — above 5 of the 10 other Nevada cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +0.2% against the cohort median of 393.4. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property counts dominate Sparks'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.
Sparks's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 36.5 Census sq mi, Sparks logged 78.4 property and 12 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Sparks's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (66% of 3,300 offenses; mix index 4,650).
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (36.5 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
+13.2%
2282.4 → 2583.8/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+0.8%
391.2 → 394.4/100K
Property offenses lead Sparks's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
2,863
2583.8
1711
Larceny-Theft
2,177
1964.7
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
352
317.7
-
Burglary
334
301.4
-
Arson
10
9
-
Violent Crime
437
394.4
352
Aggravated Assault
277
250
-
Rape
93
83.9
-
Robbery
62
56
-
Murder
5
4.5
-
Sparks Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Sparks property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Sparks Police Department
Reporting agency for Sparks NIBRS-participating
Sparks Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Sparks's 3,300 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 Nevada
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Nevada cities closest to Sparks in population. Their populations run from 4,494 to 293,100, against 110,807 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Sparks reported 437 violent crimes and 2,863 property crimes, for a total of 3,300 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Sparks?
From 2023 to 2024, Sparks's violent crime rate increased by 0.8%, and the property crime rate increased by 13.2%.
What is the most common crime in Sparks?
The most common crime type in Sparks is larceny-theft, accounting for 66.0% of all reported crimes (2,177 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Sparks'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 Sparks, NV rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.