Waukesha, WI has a A safety grade (81/100) with a violent crime rate of 114 per 100,000, 68% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Waukesha, WI Crime Rate & Safety
At 70,202 residents, Waukesha is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against WI and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Waukesha, WI carries a PlainCrime A safety grade with violent crime 68% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Waukesha, WI shows violent crime at 114 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 874.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 68% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
A safety grade
114/100K violent
874.6/100K property
-68% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Waukesha, WI
Comparable rate records
Waukesha's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Wisconsin cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Waukesha's 114.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Hudson (114.5), Cudahy (113.1), West Salem (113.1), Cottage Grove (115.6). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 169.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 114.0 in 2024 (-32.9%). The highest observed value was 169.8 in 2020 and the lowest 106.8 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Waukesha sits mid-pack among comparable Wisconsin cities
At 114.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Waukesha ranks 103 of 222 — above 119 of the 221 other Wisconsin cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +6.4% against the cohort median of 107.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property counts dominate Waukesha'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.
Waukesha's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 25.5 Census sq mi, Waukesha logged 24.1 property and 3.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Waukesha's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (78% of 694 offenses; mix index 6,160).
Violent offenses are only 12% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (25.5 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-26%
154.1 → 114/100K
Property Crime Rate
-8.6%
957.3 → 874.6/100K
Property offenses lead Waukesha's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
614
874.6
1711
Larceny-Theft
539
767.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
39
55.6
-
Burglary
36
51.3
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
80
114
352
Aggravated Assault
54
76.9
-
Rape
20
28.5
-
Robbery
5
7.1
-
Murder
1
1.4
-
Waukesha Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Waukesha 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
Waukesha Police Department
Reporting agency for Waukesha NIBRS-participating
Waukesha Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Waukesha's 694 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 Wisconsin
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Wisconsin cities closest to Waukesha in population. Their populations run from 49,610 to 76,243, against 70,202 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Waukesha reported 80 violent crimes and 614 property crimes, for a total of 694 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Waukesha?
From 2023 to 2024, Waukesha's violent crime rate decreased by 26%, and the property crime rate decreased by 8.6%.
What is the most common crime in Waukesha?
The most common crime type in Waukesha is larceny-theft, accounting for 77.7% of all reported crimes (539 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Waukesha'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 Waukesha, WI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.