County crime profile · 2024 · mid-size county · property-led

McCreary County, KY

McCreary County (16,888 people) sits in the mid-size county band in Kentucky. This page opens with reported offense counts, then rates where a Census join exists.

Data updated 2026-07-13

13
Property offenses
3
Violent offenses
16
Total · 2024

McCreary County, KY reported 18 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, McCreary County, KY agencies reported 3 violent and 13 property offenses. That equals about 18 violent and 77 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
  • 3 violent offenses
  • 18/100K violent rate

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for McCreary County, KY

Small-count caution

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

McCreary County reported 3 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 16,888. 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.

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 29.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 17.8 in 2024 (-40.0%). The highest observed value was 29.6 in 2020 and the lowest 0.0 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Property-offense composition

Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort

Larceny-theft is 30.8% of reported property offenses in McCreary County, against a cohort median of 55.6%. The remainder is burglary (3) and motor vehicle theft (6). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.

Position in the state cohort

McCreary County sits mid-pack among comparable Kentucky counties

At 17.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, McCreary County ranks 74 of 113 — above 39 of the 112 other Kentucky counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is -31.9% against the cohort median of 26.1. 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 18.8% of the 16 Part I offenses reported in McCreary County for 2024, against a median of 14.0% across comparable Kentucky counties — a gap of 4.7 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.

Mid-size county rows still aggregate voluntary UCR submissions. Per-100,000 rates need a matched 2020 Census population; unmatched stay count-only. County-wide totals rarely describe any single town inside the line.

Property Crime
13
Violent Crime
3
Data Year
2024

Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · mid-size county

Category Count
Property Crime 13
Burglary 3
Larceny-Theft 4
Motor Vehicle Theft 6
Arson 0
Violent Crime 3
Murder 0
Rape 1
Robbery 1
Aggravated Assault 1

Reporting Agency

McCreary County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating

McCreary County's crime figures on this page originate from McCreary 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the crime rate in McCreary County, KY?
In 2024, McCreary County reported 3 violent crimes and 13 property crimes. The most common violent crime was robbery, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is McCreary County safe?
McCreary County reported 16 total crimes in 2024. Property crime accounts for the majority of offenses. Compare with other counties in Kentucky on our state page for context.

Similar-Size Counties in Kentucky

A per-capita rate is easiest to read against places of similar scale, so these are the Kentucky counties closest to McCreary County in population. Their populations run from 15,941 to 17,120, against 16,888 here. Or launch the side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two jurisdictions directly.

ZIP Codes in McCreary County

Explore PlainCrime

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.

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 10 county crime · 2024 McCreary County, KY figures cover participating agencies only.

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.