Van Buren, MO has a B safety grade (72/100) with a violent crime rate of 261 per 100,000, 26% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small municipal
Van Buren's UCR row covers a small municipal population (765). Rates below are per 100,000 and sit next to MO and U.S. averages.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Van Buren, MO is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 26% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Van Buren, MO shows violent crime at 261.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 261.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 26% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 50.0% of the 4 Part I offenses reported in Van Buren for 2024, against a median of 13.4% across comparable Missouri cities — a gap of 36.6 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Small-count caution
Van Buren reported 2 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 765. 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.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Van Buren's 261.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Osage Beach (264.7), Washington (254.7), Strafford (254.5), Warsaw (253.5). 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 50.0% of reported property offenses in Van Buren, against a cohort median of 78.6%. The remainder is burglary (1) and motor vehicle theft (0). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Position in the state cohort
At 261.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Van Buren ranks 101 of 272 — above 171 of the 271 other Missouri cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +41.8% against the cohort median of 184.3. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Van Buren's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row keeps violent and property totals in a closer balance. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Based on 2 reported violent incidents in a population of 765. 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.
On a small municipal row, small denominators make rates sensitive to a handful of incidents. Figures are reported totals, not neighbourhood advice.
Across 2 Census sq mi, Van Buren logged 1 property and 1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Van Buren leans on larceny-theft at 25% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,500.
Violent offenses are 50% of the municipal total - a violence-heavy book for a small municipal.
Van Buren offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (2 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 | 2 | 261.4 |
| Burglary | 1 | 130.7 |
| Larceny-Theft | 1 | 130.7 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 0 | 0 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 2 | 261.4 |
| Rape | 1 | 130.7 |
| Aggravated Assault | 1 | 130.7 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 |
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 795 | 0 | 125.8 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 795 | 377.4 | 503.1 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 761 | 525.6 | 525.6 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 761 | 131.4 | 262.8 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 765 | 261.4 | 261.4 |
Van Buren Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Van Buren's 4 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 Missouri cities closest to Van Buren in population. Their populations run from 728 to 837, against 765 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Van Buren reported 2 violent crimes and 2 property crimes, for a total of 4 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Van Buren's violent crime rate increased by 98.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 0.5%.
The most common crime type in Van Buren is larceny-theft, accounting for 25.0% of all reported crimes (1 incidents in 2024).
Micro-municipal read: Van Buren's FBI UCR Table 8 row (2024) is the only source for the rates above.
With a small population base, per-100,000 rates amplify sparse counts. Incomplete submissions are excluded from rankings. See FBI.gov UCR for the raw Table 8 file.
Disclaimer (small municipal): small-base rates are especially easy to misread. Informational only - not advice. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Micro-municipal rate methodology for how Van Buren's small municipal row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Van Buren, MO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Van Buren, MO 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. Van Buren is scored as a small municipal UCR reporter (765 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.