U.S. States with the Highest Property Crime Rates

How property crime is reported in the United States

State-level crime rates published on PlainCrime come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which has compiled offense counts from local law enforcement agencies since 1930. Each year, thousands of police departments submit standardized counts of Part I offenses, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson, to a central FBI database. The UCR program supplies the raw counts; population denominators come from the U.S. Census Bureau, and per-capita rates are calculated by dividing the offense count by population and multiplying by 100,000.

Property crime, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson, appears far more frequently than violent crime in nearly every U.S. jurisdiction. The national property-crime rate typically runs five to seven times higher than the violent-crime rate. Burglary requires unlawful entry into a structure with intent to commit a theft or felony; larceny-theft covers simple taking of property without force; motor vehicle theft is specifically the theft of a vehicle; and arson is the willful burning of a structure or property.

Why per-capita rates matter more than raw counts

Comparing a large state to a small one using raw offense counts produces misleading results: the more populous state will always show more crime because there are simply more people to victimize. Per-capita rates (crimes per 100,000 residents) correct for population so states of different sizes can be compared on the same scale. A high raw count in California or Texas does not necessarily mean residents face a higher per-person risk than in a smaller state with a higher rate.

Even with per-capita normalization, rates contain meaningful noise. States with major tourism destinations, universities, or commuter hubs record offenses against non-residents while the population denominator counts only permanent residents, which inflates the rate. Reporting completeness also varies year to year as agencies migrate systems, so single-year rankings should be read alongside multi-year trends on each state profile page.

Limitations of FBI UCR data

UCR participation is voluntary. While most states submit consistently, gaps appear, some agencies report only certain categories, and some fail to report in given years. The 2021 transition from the legacy Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) reduced reporting coverage temporarily as agencies migrated systems. The UCR also captures only crimes reported to law enforcement. The National Crime Victimization Survey, run separately by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, consistently finds that property crimes are reported only 30–40% of the time. UCR rates should be read as reported crime, not total crime. They remain the best available comparable national dataset.