West Virginia Crime Rates: Safest & Most Dangerous Cities
Crime data for 49 cities and 32 counties in West Virginia (WV), ranked from safest to most dangerous. Data from 410 law enforcement agencies.
FBI UCR Data Snapshot: West Virginia
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 1.2 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 5.6 per 100,000 against a reporting population of 343,551,384. 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.
Within the statewide violent crime total, aggravated assault accounted for 0 incidents, robbery 0, murder and non-negligent manslaughter 0, and rape 0. Property crime splits across larceny-theft (0), burglary (0), motor vehicle theft (0), and arson (0).
Across 11 years of state-level UCR history (2014–2024), the violent crime rate moved from 1.5 to 1.2 per 100,000 — a decline of 20%. 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.
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 | 343,551,384 | 4,277 | 1.2 | 19,280 | 5.6 |
| 2023 | 338,357,687 | 4,525 | 1.3 | 19,877 | 5.9 |
| 2022 | 336,746,447 | 4,692 | 1.4 | 21,059 | 6.3 |
| 2021 | 335,395,039 | 4,690 | 1.4 | 21,306 | 6.4 |
| 2020 | 332,726,731 | 5,159 | 1.6 | 22,745 | 6.8 |
| 2019 | 331,433,049 | 4,708 | 1.4 | 21,903 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 330,362,587 | 4,768 | 1.4 | 23,303 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 329,056,355 | 5,989 | 1.8 | 29,829 | 9.1 |
| 2016 | 323,127,513 | 5,938 | 1.8 | 32,791 | 10.1 |
| 2015 | 321,418,820 | 5,298 | 1.6 | 30,725 | 9.6 |
| 2014 | 318,857,056 | 4,796 | 1.5 | 30,409 | 9.5 |
Cities in West Virginia
| City | Population |
|---|---|
| Charleston | 46,252 |
| Huntington | 44,860 |
| Morgantown | 30,510 |
| Parkersburg | 28,815 |
| Wheeling | 25,951 |
| Weirton | 18,151 |
| Fairmont | 18,066 |
| Beckley | 16,367 |
| Clarksburg | 15,316 |
| South Charleston | 13,098 |
| Vienna | 10,397 |
| St. Albans | 10,245 |
| Bridgeport | 9,396 |
| Bluefield | 9,163 |
| Charles Town | 8,103 |
| Oak Hill | 7,747 |
| Dunbar | 7,070 |
| Hurricane | 6,755 |
| Elkins | 6,700 |
| Nitro | 6,360 |
| Ranson | 5,781 |
| New Martinsville | 5,049 |
| Buckhannon | 5,014 |
| Keyser | 4,839 |
| Grafton | 4,545 |
| Barboursville | 4,327 |
| Westover | 4,068 |
| Weston | 3,722 |
| Summersville | 3,318 |
| Ripley | 3,035 |
| Williamstown | 2,943 |
| Philippi | 2,897 |
| Kenova | 2,855 |
| Fayetteville | 2,771 |
| Madison | 2,690 |
| Follansbee | 2,645 |
| Moorefield | 2,480 |
| Winfield | 2,360 |
| White Sulphur Springs | 2,177 |
| Spencer | 1,966 |
| Romney | 1,749 |
| Ronceverte | 1,518 |
| Glen Dale | 1,404 |
| Ceredo | 1,321 |
| Montgomery | 1,209 |
| Alderson | 932 |
| White Hall | 703 |
| Cedar Grove | 682 |
| Gilbert | 305 |
Counties in West Virginia
Nearby States
Compare West Virginia with neighboring states, or use the compare tool for side-by-side jurisdiction benchmarking.
Explore More 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.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.