California Cities by Crime Rate, Latest Official Data
California cities with the highest reported violent crime rates
This ranking covers 25 California cities from the OpenCrime 2024 California city table based on FBI Crime Data Explorer records. It is not a complete ranking of every California municipality. The primary metric is reported violent crime per 100,000 residents, which makes cities of different population sizes easier to compare on a common scale.
Violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. A supporting comparison, shown as violent + property rate, adds the violent crime rate and property crime rate. Property crime includes burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft in the city-level source table.
These are reported offenses known to law enforcement, not a measure of all victimization. Results can be affected by agency reporting completeness, local reporting practices, resident-population denominators and the presence of large commuter, retail, nightlife or tourism populations.
Oakland ranks first by reported violent crime rate per 100,000 residents.
Emeryville has the highest combined violent and property rate inside this 25-city table.
Statewide reported violent crime rate per 100,000 residents in the same 2024 OpenCrime California summary.
The table focuses on the highest-rate cities shown in the selected OpenCrime California city data.
How to read the ranking
The order is based on violent crime rate, not on the violent + property rate. That distinction matters because violent crime is a narrower and more serious category, while property crime can rise sharply in places with shopping centers, nightlife districts, employment hubs, tourist areas or large numbers of visitors.
Oakland is the clearest high-rate large-city case in the table. Commerce, Emeryville, Signal Hill, Santa Fe Springs, West Hollywood and Santa Monica require a different reading: their resident populations are relatively small compared with the number of people, vehicles, businesses and public spaces present during the day or evening. That mismatch can push per-resident rates upward.
Top 10 cities by reported violent crime rate
The top ten includes large urban centers, regional cities and smaller jurisdictions where per-capita rates are sensitive to population size. Oakland leads by a wide margin. Commerce, Red Bluff, Compton and Emeryville form the next tier, each above 1,200 reported violent crimes per 100,000 residents in the 2024 table.
| Rank | City | Violent rate | Violent + property rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oakland | 1,925.3 | 9,155.6 |
| 2 | Commerce | 1,448.0 | 13,808.4 |
| 3 | Red Bluff | 1,277.1 | 5,527.2 |
| 4 | Compton | 1,271.7 | 4,416.9 |
| 5 | Emeryville | 1,231.2 | 14,718.7 |
| 6 | Stockton | 1,145.8 | 3,785.4 |
| 7 | Barstow | 1,108.1 | 3,747.4 |
| 8 | Eureka | 1,016.3 | 4,186.8 |
| 9 | Victorville | 1,015.6 | 3,144.5 |
| 10 | Oroville | 980.8 | 4,800.2 |
Rates are per 100,000 residents. The violent + property rate equals violent crime rate plus property crime rate and is included as a supporting comparison, not as an official FBI or California DOJ ranking score.
Chart: highest reported violent crime rates
Oakland’s rate is substantially higher than the rest of the top ten. The next group, from Commerce through Oroville, remains elevated but is much closer together. This is why the ranking should be read in tiers rather than as a precise city-by-city safety score.
Methodology
The primary indicator is reported violent crime rate per 100,000 residents. It is calculated as reported violent offenses divided by resident population, multiplied by 100,000. Violent crime covers murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The 2024 year is used because it is the latest annual snapshot available in the cited OpenCrime city table and California DOJ annual release, with the important limitation that not all agencies submitted a full year of 2024 data.
Ranking logic
Cities are ordered by reported violent crime rate. The rank does not use the violent + property rate.
Violent + property rate
Violent + property rate = violent crime rate + property crime rate. It is included to show broader reported crime burden.
Population denominator
Rates use resident population. In retail, commuter, industrial and tourism cities, resident population can understate the exposed daily population.
Rounding
Rates are shown to one decimal place. Small differences between neighboring ranks should not be treated as exact safety differences.
The main comparability issue is that reported offenses and resident population do not always describe the same exposed population. A city can have a small resident base but a large daily population of workers, shoppers, visitors or parked vehicles. That can inflate per-resident rates, especially for property crime. Reported-crime data also depend on whether incidents are reported, how agencies classify them and whether a full year of data was submitted.
California DOJ’s 2024 annual crime publication notes that not all agencies were able to submit a full year of data. For that reason, this page should be used as a high-rate city comparison, not as a complete judgment about safety in every California city or neighborhood.
25-city ranking by reported violent crime rate
These 25 cities come from the OpenCrime 2024 California city table based on FBI Crime Data Explorer records. The order is based on reported violent crime per 100,000 residents, while the violent + property rate is included as a supporting comparison rather than an official ranking score.
| Rank | City | Violent + property rate | Violent rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oakland | 9,155.6 | 1,925.3 |
| 2 | Commerce | 13,808.4 | 1,448.0 |
| 3 | Red Bluff | 5,527.2 | 1,277.1 |
| 4 | Compton | 4,416.9 | 1,271.7 |
| 5 | Emeryville | 14,718.7 | 1,231.2 |
| 6 | Stockton | 3,785.4 | 1,145.8 |
| 7 | Barstow | 3,747.4 | 1,108.1 |
| 8 | Eureka | 4,186.8 | 1,016.3 |
| 9 | Victorville | 3,144.5 | 1,015.6 |
| 10 | Oroville | 4,800.2 | 980.8 |
| 11 | Richmond | 3,685.4 | 923.1 |
| 12 | Signal Hill | 6,830.5 | 912.5 |
| 13 | Lynwood | 4,118.3 | 910.0 |
| 14 | Santa Fe Springs | 7,066.3 | 905.8 |
| 15 | Parlier | 1,864.1 | 897.3 |
| 16 | San Bernardino | 3,794.8 | 897.1 |
| 17 | West Hollywood | 6,375.2 | 884.2 |
| 18 | Anderson | 2,211.2 | 841.5 |
| 19 | Lancaster | 2,755.3 | 834.7 |
| 20 | Clearlake | 2,413.2 | 828.8 |
| 21 | South Lake Tahoe | 2,247.1 | 785.5 |
| 22 | Merced | 3,577.4 | 784.8 |
| 23 | Santa Monica | 5,568.4 | 778.0 |
| 24 | Arvin | 2,537.4 | 776.6 |
| 25 | Sacramento | 3,302.2 | 754.9 |
Source for row values: OpenCrime California city table for 2024, based on FBI Crime Data Explorer Table 8 records. FBI and California DOJ sources are used for official reporting context, crime-category definitions and reporting-completeness limitations.
Property crime inside the same 25-city table
Property crime changes the interpretation of several cities. Emeryville and Commerce rank near the top by violent crime, but their property crime rates are even more unusual. Oakland also remains high by property crime, while Santa Fe Springs, Signal Hill, West Hollywood and Santa Monica move upward because they have commercial, visitor or employment patterns that can increase theft and vehicle-related exposure.
| Property rank | City | Property rate | Violent rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emeryville | 13,487.5 | 1,231.2 |
| 2 | Commerce | 12,360.4 | 1,448.0 |
| 3 | Oakland | 7,230.3 | 1,925.3 |
| 4 | Santa Fe Springs | 6,160.5 | 905.8 |
| 5 | Signal Hill | 5,918.0 | 912.5 |
| 6 | West Hollywood | 5,491.0 | 884.2 |
| 7 | Santa Monica | 4,790.4 | 778.0 |
| 8 | Red Bluff | 4,250.1 | 1,277.1 |
| 9 | Oroville | 3,819.4 | 980.8 |
| 10 | Lynwood | 3,208.3 | 910.0 |
Property crime rates are shown only for cities already present in the 25-city violent-crime table. This is not a statewide property-crime ranking of all California cities.
What patterns appear in the ranking?
Large-city violence and smaller-city rate effects
Oakland, Stockton, Richmond, San Bernardino, Lancaster and Sacramento are larger urban or regional centers where the violent-crime rate reflects substantial numbers of reported incidents. Smaller places such as Commerce, Emeryville, Signal Hill and Santa Fe Springs need a different reading because resident population is a narrow denominator for places with heavy non-resident activity.
Property crime is not the same problem as violent crime
The property-crime table shows why a single total-crime label can be misleading. Emeryville, Commerce and Santa Fe Springs have very high property rates, while cities such as Parlier, Anderson, Clearlake and South Lake Tahoe rank high by violent crime but much lower by violent + property rate.
The upper part of the ranking is not one uniform group. Oakland’s position points to a severe violent-crime concentration. Commerce and Emeryville combine high violent rates with extremely high property rates. Red Bluff and Compton are high on violent crime but do not match the property-crime intensity of the commercial jurisdictions.
The middle and lower portions of the 25-city table remain above the statewide violent-crime benchmark, but their risk profiles differ. Sacramento, Merced and Lancaster have broad urban public-safety challenges; Santa Monica and West Hollywood are more affected by visitor and commercial dynamics; South Lake Tahoe’s rate needs tourism context.
What this means for readers
For residents and people considering a move, the ranking is a starting point, not a neighborhood guide. A citywide rate can be pulled upward by a downtown district, retail corridor, transit area or nightlife zone while many residential neighborhoods look different. Local police maps, recent trend data and address-level context are still needed.
For businesses, the split between violent and property crime is especially important. A high property rate can affect storefront security, vehicle exposure, parking design, insurance costs, delivery operations and loss-prevention planning even when the violent-crime rank is not the highest.
For analysts and local officials, the table helps separate two questions: where violent offenses are concentrated, and where property offenses dominate the broader reported-crime picture. Those are different policy problems and usually require different prevention strategies.
FAQ
Which California city ranks first in this 2024 violent-crime table?
Oakland ranks first with 1,925.3 reported violent crimes per 100,000 residents in the selected OpenCrime California city table.
Is this a complete ranking of every California city?
No. The page covers 25 California cities from the selected high-rate OpenCrime city table. It should not be described as a complete statewide ranking of all municipalities.
Why is the page ranked by violent crime instead of total crime?
Violent crime is the clearest serious-offense indicator in the source table. Total or combined crime can be dominated by property crime, especially in cities with retail, tourism, nightlife or commuter activity.
What is the violent + property rate?
It is violent crime rate plus property crime rate. It is useful for seeing broader reported crime burden, but it is not an official FBI or California DOJ composite score.
Why can small cities have very high rates?
Rates use resident population as the denominator. In small cities with many workers, shoppers, tourists or parked vehicles, the number of exposed people, vehicles, businesses and public spaces can be much larger than the resident population suggests.
Does a high citywide rate mean every neighborhood is unsafe?
No. Citywide figures can hide major differences between neighborhoods, business districts, transit corridors, parks, entertainment zones and residential streets.
Are police-reported crime statistics complete?
No. They include offenses reported to or recorded by law enforcement. Unreported incidents, delayed submissions, agency revisions and reporting-system changes can affect the figures.
Should this ranking be used for moving decisions?
It can help identify cities that deserve closer review, but it should be paired with neighborhood-level crime maps, housing costs, school data, commute routes, insurance costs and local trend information.
Sources
-
FBI Crime Data Explorer
Federal source environment for Uniform Crime Reporting data, including city-level offenses known to law enforcement. -
California Department of Justice — Crime Data
Official California portal for crime data submitted by county and local law enforcement agencies, downloadable datasets and annual crime publications. -
California DOJ OpenJustice — Crimes & Clearances
Used for official California context on reported crimes, clearances, jurisdictions and historical crime statistics. -
California Department of Justice — Crime in California 2024
Used for the 2024 statewide context and reporting-completeness caution. -
OpenCrime — California city violent-crime-rate table, 2024
Used for the row-level city values shown in the ranking table. The site identifies FBI Crime Data Explorer Table 8 as the underlying data source. -
OpenCrime — California statewide summary, 2024
Used for statewide rate context, including the 2024 California violent crime rate per 100,000 residents.
