Valdosta, GA has a F safety grade (15/100) with a violent crime rate of 556 per 100,000, 58% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Valdosta, GA Crime Rate & Safety
At 54,896 residents, Valdosta is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against GA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Valdosta, GA carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 58% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Valdosta, GA shows violent crime at 555.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,078.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 58% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
555.6/100K violent
4078.6/100K property
+58% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Valdosta, GA
Comparable rate records
Valdosta's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Georgia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Valdosta's 555.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Morrow (554.9), Newnan (552.0), Doraville (562.9), Alma (544.7). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Valdosta reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Georgia cities
At 555.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Valdosta ranks 29 of 186 — above 157 of the 185 other Georgia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +178.9% against the cohort median of 199.2. 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 395.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 555.6 in 2024 (+40.5%). The highest observed value was 555.6 in 2024 and the lowest 352.1 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Valdosta'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.
Valdosta's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 36 Census sq mi, Valdosta logged 62.2 property and 8.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Valdosta's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (73% of 2,544 offenses; mix index 5,517).
Violent offenses are only 12% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (36 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
+21%
459 → 555.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+7%
3812.1 → 4078.6/100K
Property offenses lead Valdosta's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs GA
vs US avg
Property Crime
2,239
4078.6
1567.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,855
3379.1
-
-
Burglary
250
455.4
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
134
244.1
-
-
Arson
3
5.5
-
-
Violent Crime
305
555.6
299.6
352
Aggravated Assault
211
384.4
-
-
Robbery
63
114.8
-
-
Rape
27
49.2
-
-
Murder
4
7.3
-
-
Valdosta Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Valdosta 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
Valdosta Police Department
Reporting agency for Valdosta NIBRS-participating
Valdosta Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Valdosta's 2,544 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 Georgia
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Georgia cities closest to Valdosta in population. Their populations run from 45,655 to 67,788, against 54,896 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Valdosta reported 305 violent crimes and 2,239 property crimes, for a total of 2,544 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Valdosta?
From 2023 to 2024, Valdosta's violent crime rate increased by 21%, and the property crime rate increased by 7%.
What is the most common crime in Valdosta?
The most common crime type in Valdosta is larceny-theft, accounting for 72.9% of all reported crimes (1,855 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Valdosta'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 Valdosta, GA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.