Waukegan, IL has a C safety grade (42/100) with a violent crime rate of 445 per 100,000, 26% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 87,155 residents, Waukegan is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against IL and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Waukegan, IL carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 26% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Waukegan, IL shows violent crime at 445.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,614.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 26% above 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.
Position in the state cohort
At 445.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Waukegan ranks 41 of 506 — above 465 of the 505 other Illinois cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +346.7% against the cohort median of 99.7. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Waukegan's 445.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Virden (444.7), East Alton (446.7), Anna (440.3), Carlinville (438.0). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 21.6% of the 1,795 Part I offenses reported in Waukegan for 2024, against a median of 11.2% across comparable Illinois cities — a gap of 10.4 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 50.7% of reported property offenses in Waukegan, against a cohort median of 70.3%. The remainder is burglary (236) and motor vehicle theft (457). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 368.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 445.2 in 2024 (+20.8%). The highest observed value was 445.2 in 2024 and the lowest 42.0 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Waukegan'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 24.3 Census sq mi, Waukegan logged 58 property and 16 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Waukegan leans on larceny-theft at 40% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,630.
Violent offenses are 22% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Waukegan offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (24.3 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 | 1,407 | 1614.4 |
| Larceny-Theft | 714 | 819.2 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 457 | 524.4 |
| Burglary | 236 | 270.8 |
| Arson | 11 | 12.6 |
| Violent Crime | 388 | 445.2 |
| Aggravated Assault | 253 | 290.3 |
| Rape | 77 | 88.3 |
| Robbery | 53 | 60.8 |
| Murder | 5 | 5.7 |
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 · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 85,739 | 368.6 | 1648 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 85,090 | - | - |
| 2022 | Comparable | 88,073 | 42 | 119.2 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 87,412 | 377.5 | 1140.6 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 87,155 | 445.2 | 1614.4 |
Waukegan Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Waukegan's 1,795 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 Illinois cities closest to Waukegan in population. Their populations run from 67,934 to 109,677, against 87,155 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Waukegan sits at 445.2/100K violent (grade C); the Illinois cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Waukegan at 445.2/100K violent and 1,614.4/100K property - matched below outside Illinois (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
445.2/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
1,614.4/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
Out-of-state cities whose violent rate moved a similar share from 2023→2024 (+17.9% here); level-based peers above are excluded.
In 2024, Waukegan reported 388 violent crimes and 1,407 property crimes, for a total of 1,795 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Waukegan's violent crime rate increased by 17.9%, and the property crime rate increased by 41.5%.
The most common crime type in Waukegan is larceny-theft, accounting for 39.8% of all reported crimes (714 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Waukegan'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 Waukegan's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Waukegan, IL 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. Waukegan is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (87,155 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.