Watchung, NJ has a B safety grade (68/100) with a violent crime rate of 15 per 100,000, 96% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · small city
Watchung is a small municipal reporter (6,594 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with NJ and U.S. context.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Watchung, NJ is among the safest cities in the country, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 96% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Watchung, NJ shows violent crime at 15.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,200.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 96% 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.
Small-count caution
Watchung reported 1 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 6,594. 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 Watchung's 15.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are North Caldwell (15.0), Rockaway (14.8), Cedar Grove Township (14.6), Roseland (16.0). 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 15.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Watchung ranks 353 of 417 — above 64 of the 416 other New Jersey cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -77.9% against the cohort median of 68.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 0.4% of the 278 Part I offenses reported in Watchung for 2024, against a median of 7.2% across comparable New Jersey cities — a gap of 6.9 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 93.5% of reported property offenses in Watchung, against a cohort median of 82.0%. The remainder is burglary (10) and motor vehicle theft (8). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Watchung'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.
Based on 1 reported violent incidents in a population of 6,594. 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.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Across 6 Census sq mi, Watchung logged 46 property and 0.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Watchung's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (93% of 278 offenses; mix index 8,701).
Violent offenses are only 0% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Watchung offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (6 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 | 277 | 4200.8 |
| Larceny-Theft | 259 | 3927.8 |
| Burglary | 10 | 151.7 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 8 | 121.3 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 |
| Violent Crime | 1 | 15.2 |
| Aggravated Assault | 1 | 15.2 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
| Rape | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 |
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 6,018 | 0 | 4503.2 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 6,280 | 31.8 | 4394.9 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 6,468 | 61.8 | 4468.2 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 6,468 | 46.4 | 3741.5 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 6,594 | 15.2 | 4200.8 |
Watchung Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Watchung's 278 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 New Jersey cities closest to Watchung in population. Their populations run from 6,310 to 6,878, against 6,594 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Watchung sits at 15.2/100K violent (grade B); the New Jersey cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
In 2024, Watchung reported 1 violent crimes and 277 property crimes, for a total of 278 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Watchung's violent crime rate decreased by 67.2%, and the property crime rate increased by 12.3%.
The most common crime type in Watchung is larceny-theft, accounting for 93.2% of all reported crimes (259 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Watchung is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Small-city rate methodology for how Watchung's small city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Watchung, NJ rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Watchung, NJ 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. Watchung is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (6,594 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.