Tempe, AZ has a D safety grade (28/100) with a violent crime rate of 470 per 100,000, 34% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 191,376 residents, Tempe is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against AZ and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Tempe, AZ carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 34% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Tempe, AZ shows violent crime at 470.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,893.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 34% 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.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Tempe's 470.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Flagstaff (463.2), Mesa (482.7), Eloy (484.8), Bullhead City (455.3). 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 470.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Tempe ranks 14 of 64 — above 50 of the 63 other Arizona cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +84.7% against the cohort median of 254.7. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 550.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 470.3 in 2024 (-14.5%). The highest observed value was 588.4 in 2022 and the lowest 470.3 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Tempe'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.
Across 40 Census sq mi, Tempe logged 138.5 property and 22.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Tempe's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (67% of 6,438 offenses; mix index 4,788).
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Tempe offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (40 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 | 5,538 | 2893.8 |
| Larceny-Theft | 4,321 | 2257.9 |
| Burglary | 640 | 334.4 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 577 | 301.5 |
| Arson | 14 | 7.3 |
| Violent Crime | 900 | 470.3 |
| Aggravated Assault | 631 | 329.7 |
| Rape | 137 | 71.6 |
| Robbery | 127 | 66.4 |
| Murder | 5 | 2.6 |
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 · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 199,935 | 550.2 | 3576.7 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 183,973 | - | - |
| 2022 | Comparable | 187,473 | 588.4 | 4376.6 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 188,144 | 507.1 | 3608.9 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 191,376 | 470.3 | 2893.8 |
Tempe Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Tempe's 6,438 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 Arizona cities closest to Tempe in population. Their populations run from 101,989 to 277,527, against 191,376 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Tempe sits at 470.3/100K violent (grade D); the Arizona cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Tempe at 470.3/100K violent and 2,893.8/100K property - matched below outside Arizona (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
470.3/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
2,893.8/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (-7.3% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Tempe reported 900 violent crimes and 5,538 property crimes, for a total of 6,438 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Tempe's violent crime rate decreased by 7.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 19.8%.
The most common crime type in Tempe is larceny-theft, accounting for 67.1% of all reported crimes (4,321 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Tempe'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.
Large-city rate methodology for how Tempe's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Tempe, AZ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Tempe is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (191,376 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.