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

Whitley County, KY

Whitley County (36,712 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

103
Property offenses
18
Violent offenses
121
Total · 2024

Whitley County, KY reported 49 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Whitley County, KY agencies reported 18 violent and 103 property offenses. That equals about 49 violent and 281 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
  • 18 violent offenses
  • 49/100K violent rate

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

Small-count caution

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

Whitley County reported 18 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 36,712. 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

Whitley County reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Kentucky counties

At 49.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Whitley County ranks 24 of 113 — above 89 of the 112 other Kentucky counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is +91.4% against the cohort median of 25.6. Counties that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 35.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 49.0 in 2024 (+38.5%). The highest observed value was 49.0 in 2024 and the lowest 24.5 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 43.7% of reported property offenses in Whitley County, against a cohort median of 55.6%. The remainder is burglary (41) and motor vehicle theft (17). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.

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
103
Violent Crime
18
Data Year
2024

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

Category Count
Property Crime 103
Burglary 41
Larceny-Theft 45
Motor Vehicle Theft 17
Arson 1
Violent Crime 18
Murder 1
Rape 2
Robbery 3
Aggravated Assault 12

Reporting Agency

Whitley County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating

Whitley County's crime figures on this page originate from Whitley 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 Whitley County, KY?
In 2024, Whitley County reported 18 violent crimes and 103 property crimes. The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is Whitley County safe?
Whitley County reported 121 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 Whitley County in population. Their populations run from 35,942 to 37,103, against 36,712 here. Or launch the side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two jurisdictions directly.

ZIP Codes in Whitley 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 Whitley 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.