Wilkes-Barre, PA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 23% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wilkes-Barre, PA shows violent crime at 431.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,556.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 23% 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.
C safety grade
431.6/100K violent
1556.9/100K property
+23% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wilkes-Barre, PA
Position in the state cohort
Wilkes-Barre reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Pennsylvania cities
At 431.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wilkes-Barre ranks 52 of 838 — above 786 of the 837 other Pennsylvania cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +560.8% against the cohort median of 65.3. 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
Wilkes-Barre's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Pennsylvania cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Wilkes-Barre's 431.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Pittsburgh (427.2), Clairton (425.4), West Reading (440.3), Lower Chichester Township (445.6). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 21.7% of the 880 Part I offenses reported in Wilkes-Barre for 2024, against a median of 10.0% across comparable Pennsylvania cities — a gap of 11.7 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 553.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 431.6 in 2024 (-22.0%). The highest observed value was 553.1 in 2020 and the lowest 397.8 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Wilkes-Barre'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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Wilkes-Barre's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 6.8 Census sq mi, Wilkes-Barre logged 100.6 property and 27.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wilkes-Barre's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 880 offenses; mix index 4,529).
Violent offenses are 22% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (6.8 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
+4.4%
413.4 → 431.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+1.1%
1540.6 → 1556.9/100K
Property offenses lead Wilkes-Barre's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
689
1556.9
1711
Larceny-Theft
567
1281.2
-
Burglary
73
165
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
49
110.7
-
Arson
5
11.3
-
Violent Crime
191
431.6
352
Aggravated Assault
143
323.1
-
Robbery
25
56.5
-
Rape
19
42.9
-
Murder
4
9
-
Wilkes-Barre Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Wilkes-Barre property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Wilkes-Barre Police Department
Reporting agency for Wilkes-Barre Summary Reporting (SRS)
Wilkes-Barre Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wilkes-Barre's 880 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.
Similar-Size Cities in Pennsylvania
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Pennsylvania cities closest to Wilkes-Barre in population. Their populations run from 38,819 to 45,516, against 44,254 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Wilkes-Barre reported 191 violent crimes and 689 property crimes, for a total of 880 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Wilkes-Barre?
From 2023 to 2024, Wilkes-Barre's violent crime rate increased by 4.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 1.1%.
What is the most common crime in Wilkes-Barre?
The most common crime type in Wilkes-Barre is larceny-theft, accounting for 64.4% of all reported crimes (567 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Wilkes-Barre figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Wilkes-Barre, PA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.