Thornton, CO has a C safety grade (48/100) with a violent crime rate of 274 per 100,000, 22% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Thornton, CO Crime Rate & Safety
At 145,847 residents, Thornton is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CO and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Thornton, CO carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 22% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Thornton, CO shows violent crime at 273.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,835.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 22% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
273.6/100K violent
2835.8/100K property
-22% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Thornton, CO
Comparable rate records
Thornton's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Colorado cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Thornton's 273.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Fort Collins (272.7), Lafayette (272.6), Vail (271.1), Fort Lupton (270.4). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Thornton sits mid-pack among comparable Colorado cities
At 273.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Thornton ranks 55 of 134 — above 79 of the 133 other Colorado cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +40.3% against the cohort median of 194.9. 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
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 310.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 273.6 in 2024 (-12.0%). The highest observed value was 310.8 in 2020 and the lowest 273.6 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Thornton'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.
Thornton's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 36.5 Census sq mi, Thornton logged 113.2 property and 10.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Thornton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (67% of 4,535 offenses; mix index 4,782).
Violent offenses are only 9% 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
-6.6%
3036.1 → 2835.8/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-5.4%
289.2 → 273.6/100K
Property offenses lead Thornton's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
4,136
2835.8
1711
Larceny-Theft
3,016
2067.9
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
716
490.9
-
Burglary
404
277
-
Arson
29
19.9
-
Violent Crime
399
273.6
352
Aggravated Assault
209
143.3
-
Rape
116
79.5
-
Robbery
72
49.4
-
Murder
2
1.4
-
Thornton Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Thornton property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Thornton Police Department
Reporting agency for Thornton NIBRS-participating
Thornton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Thornton's 4,535 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 Colorado
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Colorado cities closest to Thornton in population. Their populations run from 105,195 to 170,509, against 145,847 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Thornton reported 399 violent crimes and 4,136 property crimes, for a total of 4,535 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Thornton?
From 2023 to 2024, Thornton's violent crime rate decreased by 5.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 6.6%.
What is the most common crime in Thornton?
The most common crime type in Thornton is larceny-theft, accounting for 66.5% of all reported crimes (3,016 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Thornton'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 Thornton, CO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.