Sterling Heights, MI has a B safety grade (68/100) with a violent crime rate of 229 per 100,000, 35% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Sterling Heights, MI Crime Rate & Safety
At 133,058 residents, Sterling Heights is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MI and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Sterling Heights, MI carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 35% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Sterling Heights, MI shows violent crime at 229.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,042.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 35% 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
229.2/100K violent
1042.4/100K property
-35% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Sterling Heights, MI
Comparable rate records
Sterling Heights's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Michigan cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Sterling Heights's 229.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Livonia (228.1), Frankenmuth (230.4), Cheboygan (225.7), Durand (225.7). 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
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 178.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 229.2 in 2024 (+28.4%). The highest observed value was 229.2 in 2024 and the lowest 168.4 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
Sterling Heights sits mid-pack among comparable Michigan cities
At 229.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Sterling Heights ranks 151 of 366 — above 215 of the 365 other Michigan cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +22.6% against the cohort median of 187.0. 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 Sterling Heights'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.
Sterling Heights's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 36.4 Census sq mi, Sterling Heights logged 38.1 property and 8.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Sterling Heights's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (62% of 1,692 offenses; mix index 4,294).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (36.4 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+36.1%
168.4 → 229.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-6.9%
1119.1 → 1042.4/100K
Property offenses lead Sterling Heights's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,387
1042.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,050
789.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
235
176.6
-
Burglary
102
76.7
-
Arson
7
5.3
-
Violent Crime
305
229.2
352
Aggravated Assault
243
182.6
-
Rape
41
30.8
-
Robbery
20
15
-
Murder
1
0.8
-
Sterling Heights Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Sterling Heights 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
Sterling Heights Police Department
Reporting agency for Sterling Heights NIBRS-participating
Sterling Heights Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Sterling Heights's 1,692 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 Michigan
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Michigan cities closest to Sterling Heights in population. Their populations run from 87,422 to 135,843, against 133,058 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
How many crimes were reported in Sterling Heights?
In 2024, Sterling Heights reported 305 violent crimes and 1,387 property crimes, for a total of 1,692 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Sterling Heights?
From 2023 to 2024, Sterling Heights's violent crime rate increased by 36.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 6.9%.
What is the most common crime in Sterling Heights?
The most common crime type in Sterling Heights is larceny-theft, accounting for 62.1% of all reported crimes (1,050 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Sterling Heights'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 Sterling Heights, MI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.