State crime profile · 2024
West Virginia Crime Rates: Safest & Most Dangerous Cities
Crime data for 49 cities and 32 counties in West Virginia (WV), ranked safest to most dangerous from 410 reporting agencies.
Data updated 2026-07-13
- 241.6
- Violent / 100K
- 1,089.3
- Property / 100K
- 49
- Cities
- 32
- Counties
The verdict
West Virginia's 241.6 violent crimes per 100,000 runs 31% below the U.S. average, making it safer than most states.
- 241.6
- violent crimes per 100K
- -31%
- vs. the U.S. average
- 16th
- safest of 51 states & DC
- 1,089.3
- property crimes per 100K
How safe is West Virginia? FBI UCR data snapshot
West Virginia (WV) reported 4,277 violent crimes and 19,280 property crimes in 2024, based on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program submissions from 410 law enforcement agencies. That translates to a statewide violent crime rate of 241.6 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1089.3 per 100,000 against a reporting population of 1,769,979. The PlainCrime dataset indexes 49 West Virginia cities and 32 counties, each with their own detail pages and local crime figures drawn from FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10.
The FBI's state-level summary reports violent and property crime as aggregate totals rather than broken out by individual offense type (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson). For an offense-by-offense breakdown, see the individual city and county pages for West Virginia below, which draw on FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10 and do report each offense type separately.
Across 11 years of state-level UCR history (2014–2024), the violent crime rate moved from 259.2 to 241.6 per 100,000, a decline of 6.8%. City-level detail pages within West Virginia include safety grades (A+ to F), benchmarks against national averages, per-capita risk estimates, and multi-year trend tables for users comparing specific jurisdictions. All figures above are drawn from FBI UCR 2024 submissions; reporting completeness varies by agency, and the FBI periodically restates prior-year figures as late submissions arrive.
State figures roll up the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) submissions from local and county agencies across the state, then express them per 100,000 residents so one state can be compared with another. Statewide averages hide a great deal of variation: a handful of large cities often account for much of a state's reported violent crime, while most of its land area and population live with markedly lower rates. Reporting completeness also differs between states, so a year-over-year change can reflect which agencies filed data as much as any real shift on the ground. Read a state number as the broad backdrop, then drill into the city and county pages for the local detail that actually shapes day-to-day decisions.
How West Virginia ranks nationally
West Virginia vs. every U.S. state
Violent crime per 100,000 residents, FBI UCR 2024. Lower is safer.
242 Safer than 69% among 51 U.S. states
Each bar is a band of values; taller bars hold more U.S. states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · 2024
Safest Cities
Top 50 by lowest violent crime rate
Most Dangerous Cities
Top 50 by highest violent crime rate
Crime Trends
Multi-year charts & analysis
Crime Trends
| Year | Population | Violent Crime | Rate | Property Crime | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1,769,979 | 4,277 | 241.6 | 19,280 | 1089.3 |
| 2023 | 1,770,071 | 4,525 | 255.6 | 19,877 | 1122.9 |
| 2022 | 1,775,156 | 4,692 | 264.3 | 21,059 | 1186.3 |
| 2021 | 1,782,959 | 4,690 | 263 | 21,306 | 1195 |
| 2020 | 1,784,787 | 5,159 | 289.1 | 22,745 | 1274.4 |
| 2019 | 1,792,147 | 4,708 | 262.7 | 21,903 | 1222.2 |
| 2018 | 1,805,832 | 4,768 | 264 | 23,303 | 1290.4 |
| 2017 | 1,815,857 | 5,989 | 329.8 | 29,829 | 1642.7 |
| 2016 | 1,831,102 | 5,938 | 324.3 | 32,791 | 1790.8 |
| 2015 | 1,844,128 | 5,298 | 287.3 | 30,725 | 1666.1 |
| 2014 | 1,850,326 | 4,796 | 259.2 | 30,409 | 1643.4 |
Cities in West Virginia
Safest cities in West Virginia
Cities with 25,000+ residents, lowest violent crime per 100,000, FBI UCR 2024. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Morgantown 209.8
Morgantown
209.8 /100K
- Parkersburg 260.3
Parkersburg
260.3 /100K
- Charleston
Charleston
542.7 /100K
- Huntington
Huntington
800.3 /100K
- Wheeling
Wheeling
982.6 /100K
What this shows Morgantown is the safest sizeable city in West Virginia, at 209.8 violent crimes per 100,000.
Highest violent-crime cities in West Virginia
Cities with 25,000+ residents, highest violent crime per 100,000, FBI UCR 2024. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Wheeling
Wheeling
982.6 /100K
- Huntington
Huntington
800.3 /100K
- Charleston
Charleston
542.7 /100K
- Parkersburg 260.3
Parkersburg
260.3 /100K
- Morgantown 209.8
Morgantown
209.8 /100K
What this shows Wheeling reports the highest big-city violent-crime rate in West Virginia, at 982.6 per 100,000.
| City | Population | Violent / 100K | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston | 46,252 | 542.7 | F |
| Huntington | 44,860 | 800.3 | F |
| Morgantown | 30,510 | 209.8 | B |
| Parkersburg | 28,815 | 260.3 | C |
| Wheeling | 25,951 | 982.6 | F |
| Weirton | 18,151 | 137.7 | A |
| Fairmont | 18,066 | 520.3 | D |
| Beckley | 16,367 | 604.9 | F |
| Clarksburg | 15,316 | 372.2 | C |
| South Charleston | 13,098 | 488.6 | F |
| Vienna | 10,397 | 153.9 | C |
| St. Albans | 10,245 | 224.5 | C |
| Bridgeport | 9,396 | 138.4 | B |
| Bluefield | 9,163 | 480.2 | C |
| Charles Town | 8,103 | 74 | A |
| Oak Hill | 7,747 | 154.9 | B |
| Dunbar | 7,070 | 311.2 | C |
| Hurricane | 6,755 | 59.2 | A |
| Elkins | 6,700 | 477.6 | C |
| Nitro | 6,360 | 157.2 | C |
| Ranson | 5,781 | 69.2 | A |
| New Martinsville | 5,049 | 59.4 | A+ |
| Buckhannon | 5,014 | 319.1 | C |
| Keyser | 4,839 | 248 | B |
| Grafton | 4,545 | 0 | A+ |
| Barboursville | 4,327 | 46.2 | B |
| Westover | 4,068 | 221.2 | C |
| Weston | 3,722 | 241.8 | B |
| Summersville | 3,318 | 271.2 | B |
| Ripley | 3,035 | 98.8 | A |
| Williamstown | 2,943 | 0 | A+ |
| Philippi | 2,897 | 138.1 | A |
| Kenova | 2,855 | 0 | A+ |
| Fayetteville | 2,771 | 36.1 | B |
| Madison | 2,690 | 185.9 | A |
| Follansbee | 2,645 | 0 | A+ |
| Moorefield | 2,480 | 766.1 | F |
| Winfield | 2,360 | 42.4 | A+ |
| White Sulphur Springs | 2,177 | 91.9 | A |
| Spencer | 1,966 | 50.9 | A |
| Romney | 1,749 | 628.9 | D |
| Ronceverte | 1,518 | 0 | A+ |
| Glen Dale | 1,404 | 71.2 | A |
| Ceredo | 1,321 | 0 | A+ |
| Montgomery | 1,209 | 827.1 | F |
| Alderson | 932 | 214.6 | B |
| White Hall | 703 | 284.5 | C |
| Cedar Grove | 682 | 0 | A+ |
| Gilbert | 305 | 327.9 | B |
Counties in West Virginia
Largest counties in West Virginia, violent crime per 100K
Top 8 counties by population, violent crime per 100,000 residents. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Kanawha
Kanawha
151 /100K
- Berkeley
Berkeley
91.7 /100K
- Monongalia 44.4
Monongalia
44.4 /100K
- Cabell 55.1
Cabell
55.1 /100K
- Wood 62.9
Wood
62.9 /100K
- Raleigh
Raleigh
170.3 /100K
- Harrison 53.1
Harrison
53.1 /100K
- Mercer
Mercer
132.4 /100K
Nearby States
Compare West Virginia with neighboring states, or use the compare tool for side-by-side jurisdiction benchmarking.
Explore West Virginia crime data
Primary source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States annual release. State-level trends cross-check against the FBI Crime Data Explorer (CDE) API.
Population figures for rate calculations reference U.S. Census Bureau estimates where FBI-reported populations are unavailable. Verify with Census.gov QuickFacts.
Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Using PlainCrime rankings responsibly
Crime rankings are most useful when they sit alongside other community-quality signals, school performance, housing affordability, employment, and access to healthcare. A safer-than-average violent-crime rate in a small commuter suburb does not by itself make a city a better place to live; it is one data point among many. Likewise, a higher-than-average rate in a dense urban center may reflect that residents and visitors interact with police more often, not that the city is necessarily unsafe for its residents. We provide cross-links from each city profile to neighboring jurisdictions, state averages, and national benchmarks so you can read each number in context rather than in isolation.
For news outlets, researchers, and concerned residents who cite our rankings, the most defensible approach is to quote the per-100,000 rate, the reporting year, and the source agency in the same sentence. Avoid framing crime statistics as predictive, UCR data describes what was reported in a past year, not what will happen tomorrow. Where possible, pair our rankings with longitudinal trend data on the relevant city's profile page to show whether the rate is moving up, holding steady, or falling year over year.
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.