Kentucky's comparable FBI window (2014–2024, 11 years) splits: one major offense rate rose while the other fell — the lead series is the larger |endpoint %| move.
Split-window verdict
Kentucky's violent crime rate rose 5.2% from 2014 to 2024; its property crime rate fell 38.3%. A single combined label would hide that split, so the evidence below keeps the two series separate.
Latest national comparison
For 2024, the state rate was 225.5 per 100,000 versus 352.0 across the state records in this dataset, a gap of 35.9% below. This is a state-level benchmark, not a neighborhood-safety conclusion.
Full-window endpoints
Violent crime moved from 214.3 to 225.5 per 100,000 (+5.2%). Property crime moved from 2263.4 to 1397.1 (-38.3%). These are endpoint comparisons, not proof that every intervening year followed the same direction.
Recent direction check
From 2021 to 2024, the violent-crime rate fell 17.1%, compared with +5.2% across the full 2014-2024 window. That difference is why the latest few observations should be read separately from the decade-scale endpoints.
Peak and trough
The highest observed violent-crime rate was 272.7 in 2020; the lowest was 214.3 in 2014. The latest value lies 19% of the way from that low to that peak, which shows whether the endpoint is close to an extreme or near the middle of the observed range.
Year-to-year movement
The largest annual change ran from 2019 to 2020: +20.8%. Across the full sequence, 5 year-to-year steps rose by more than 1% and 3 fell by more than 1%. A single sharp step can reflect participation or reporting changes as well as a real change in recorded offenses.
Rate denominator
The reported population changed from 4,413,457 to 4,588,372 (+4.0%). Rates account for that denominator change; raw offense counts do not. This is one reason a count and a per-100,000 rate can move by different percentages over the same years.
FBI UCR figures reflect offenses reported to law enforcement and submitted by participating agencies. On Kentucky's property-led trend window, a sharp property-rate change can reflect reporting participation, a definition update, or the NIBRS transition as well as a real change in recorded offenses. Rates use the reported population denominator; unreported crime is outside this dataset.
| Year | Coverage | Population | Property | Rate | YoY | Violent | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Comparable | 4,588,372 | 64,105 | 1397.1 | ↓ 11.4% | 10,346 | 225.5 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 4,526,154 | 71,409 | 1577.7 | ↑ 4.9% | 10,489 | 231.7 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 4,512,310 | 67,859 | 1503.9 | ↓ 8.0% | 10,054 | 222.8 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 4,509,394 | 73,749 | 1635.5 | ↓ 10.7% | 12,271 | 272.1 |
| 2020 | Comparable | 4,477,251 | 81,969 | 1830.8 | ↓ 4.8% | 12,209 | 272.7 |
| 2019 | Comparable | 4,467,673 | 85,958 | 1924 | ↓ 4.2% | 10,087 | 225.8 |
| 2018 | Comparable | 4,468,402 | 89,701 | 2007.5 | ↓ 7.3% | 9,891 | 221.4 |
| 2017 | Comparable | 4,454,189 | 96,469 | 2165.8 | ↓ 2.2% | 10,462 | 234.9 |
| 2016 | Comparable | 4,436,974 | 98,295 | 2215.4 | ↑ 0.2% | 10,452 | 235.6 |
| 2015 | Comparable | 4,425,092 | 97,825 | 2210.7 | ↓ 2.3% | 9,881 | 223.3 |
| 2014 | Comparable | 4,413,457 | 99,894 | 2263.4 | - | 9,459 | 214.3 |
Primary data source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. Kentucky's property-rate series cross-checks against FBI Crime in the United States annual release. Population figures reference U.S. Census Bureau estimates where FBI populations are unavailable. Rates are per 100,000 population.
Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.