Sparta Township, NJ has a A+ safety grade (91/100) with a violent crime rate of 39 per 100,000, 89% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Sparta Township (20,390 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
Sparta Township, NJ is among the safest cities in the country, and earns an A+ PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 89% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Sparta Township, NJ shows violent crime at 39.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 573.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 89% 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.
Small-count caution
Sparta Township reported 8 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 20,390. 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.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 21.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 39.2 in 2024 (+81.1%). The highest observed value was 39.2 in 2024 and the lowest 16.2 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Sparta Township's 39.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Haddonfield (38.9), Edgewater (39.8), Green Brook Township (40.1), Jackson Township (40.1). 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 39.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Sparta Township ranks 276 of 417 — above 141 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -42.7% against the cohort median of 68.5. 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 91.5% of reported property offenses in Sparta Township, against a cohort median of 82.0%. The remainder is burglary (10) and motor vehicle theft (0). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Sparta Township'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 8 reported violent incidents in a population of 20,390. 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.
Sparta Township's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (86% of 125 offenses; mix index 7,423).
Violent offenses are only 6% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Sparta Township offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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 | 117 | 573.8 |
| Larceny-Theft | 107 | 524.8 |
| Burglary | 10 | 49 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 0 | 0 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 8 | 39.2 |
| Aggravated Assault | 7 | 34.3 |
| Robbery | 1 | 4.9 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Rape | 0 | 0 |
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 | 18,467 | 21.7 | 97.5 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 18,503 | 16.2 | 378.3 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 20,348 | 24.6 | 437.4 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 20,321 | 29.5 | 452.7 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 20,390 | 39.2 | 573.8 |
Sparta Township Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Sparta Township's 125 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 Sparta Township in population. Their populations run from 19,899 to 21,121, against 20,390 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Sparta Township sits at 39.2/100K violent (grade A+); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Sparta Township at 39.2/100K violent and 573.8/100K property - matched below outside New Jersey (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
39.2/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
573.8/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Sparta Township reported 8 violent crimes and 117 property crimes, for a total of 125 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Sparta Township's violent crime rate increased by 32.9%, and the property crime rate increased by 26.8%.
The most common crime type in Sparta Township is larceny-theft, accounting for 85.6% of all reported crimes (107 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Sparta Township 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 Sparta Township's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Sparta Township, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Sparta Township, 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. Sparta Township is scored in the mid-size municipal band (20,390 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.