Wheaton, IL has a A+ safety grade (90/100) with a violent crime rate of 49 per 100,000, 86% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
At 52,649 residents, Wheaton 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
Wheaton, IL carries a PlainCrime A+ safety grade with violent crime 86% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wheaton, IL shows violent crime at 49.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 541.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 86% 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.
Small-count caution
Wheaton reported 26 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 52,649. 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 Wheaton's 49.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Highland Park (49.5), Dwight (49.6), Glen Ellyn (49.7), Barrington Hills (50.1). 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
Across 3 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 87.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 49.4 in 2024 (-43.4%). The highest observed value was 87.3 in 2020 and the lowest 45.6 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
At 49.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wheaton ranks 355 of 506 — above 151 of the 505 other Illinois cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -51.0% against the cohort median of 100.7. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 78.6% of reported property offenses in Wheaton, against a cohort median of 70.2%. The remainder is burglary (49) and motor vehicle theft (12). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Wheaton'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 26 reported violent incidents in a population of 52,649. 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 large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Across 11.3 Census sq mi, Wheaton logged 25.2 property and 2.3 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wheaton's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (72% of 311 offenses; mix index 5,481).
Violent offenses are only 8% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Wheaton offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (11.3 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 | 285 | 541.3 |
| Larceny-Theft | 224 | 425.5 |
| Burglary | 49 | 93.1 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 12 | 22.8 |
| Arson | 2 | 3.8 |
| Violent Crime | 26 | 49.4 |
| Rape | 14 | 26.6 |
| Aggravated Assault | 9 | 17.1 |
| Robbery | 3 | 5.7 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
The chart omits 2021, 2022 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Lead series · fell across 3 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 52,706 | 87.3 | 2248.3 |
| 2021 | Insufficient reporting | 52,374 | - | - |
| 2022 | Insufficient reporting | 52,663 | - | - |
| 2023 | Comparable | 52,581 | 45.6 | 458.3 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 52,649 | 49.4 | 541.3 |
Wheaton Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wheaton's 311 reported offenses (3-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 Wheaton in population. Their populations run from 49,467 to 54,953, against 52,649 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Wheaton sits at 49.4/100K violent (grade A+); the Illinois cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Wheaton at 49.4/100K violent and 541.3/100K property - matched below outside Illinois (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
49.4/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
541.3/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Wheaton reported 26 violent crimes and 285 property crimes, for a total of 311 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Wheaton's violent crime rate increased by 8.3%, and the property crime rate increased by 18.1%.
The most common crime type in Wheaton is larceny-theft, accounting for 72.0% of all reported crimes (224 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Wheaton'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 Wheaton's large city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Wheaton, 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. Wheaton is scored here as a large city UCR reporter (52,649 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.