County crime profile · 2024 · small county · property-led

Columbia County, WA

Columbia County is a small county (3,952 people) in Washington. FBI Table 10 county totals lead; rates appear only with a verified Census population join.

Data updated 2026-08-24

29
Property offenses
8
Violent offenses
37
Total · 2024

Columbia County, WA reported 202 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Columbia County, WA agencies reported 8 violent and 29 property offenses. That equals about 202 violent and 734 property crimes per 100,000 using a verified Census population join. Table 10 coverage is a voluntary subset of U.S. counties.

  • 2024 UCR year
  • 8 violent offenses
  • 202/100K violent rate

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Columbia County, WA

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 75.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 202.4 in 2024 (+166.7%). The highest observed value was 202.4 in 2024 and the lowest 75.9 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Small-count caution

The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable

Columbia County reported 8 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 3,952. 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.

Position in the state cohort

Columbia County reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Washington counties

At 202.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Columbia County ranks 2 of 35 — above 33 of the 34 other Washington counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is +217.3% against the cohort median of 63.8. Counties 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 make up an unusually large share of the reported mix

Violent offenses are 21.6% of the 37 Part I offenses reported in Columbia County for 2024, against a median of 13.5% across comparable Washington counties — a gap of 8.2 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 dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort

Larceny-theft is 72.4% of reported property offenses in Columbia County, against a cohort median of 58.7%. The remainder is burglary (2) and motor vehicle theft (6). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.

Small-county UCR rows are especially sensitive to which agencies filed. Per-100,000 rates use a matched 2020 Census population when available; otherwise counts only. Do not treat the county total as a town-level crime level.

Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · small county

Category Count
Property Crime 29
Burglary 2
Larceny-Theft 21
Motor Vehicle Theft 6
Arson 1
Violent Crime 8
Murder 0
Rape 0
Robbery 0
Aggravated Assault 8

Reporting Agency

Columbia County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating

Columbia County's crime figures on this page originate from Columbia County Sheriff's Office's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

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 Counties in Washington

A per-capita rate is easiest to read against places of similar scale, so these are the Washington counties closest to Columbia County in population. Their populations run from 2,286 to 17,788, against 3,952 here. Or launch the side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two jurisdictions directly.

ZIP Codes in Columbia County

State atlas: Washington · Compare · Rankings

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10.

FBI Table 10 supplies county offense counts but no resident population. Where this page shows a per-100,000 rate, the denominator is a separately matched 2020 U.S. Census Bureau county population; unmatched county rows remain count-only. Statewide comparisons draw on the state UCR program. Verify with FBI.gov UCR and Census.gov QuickFacts.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.