Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.
Raw data sources:
18,000 local law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
Date(s) & Update Frequency:
Reflects 2022 calendar year; released from FBI in Oct. 2023 (latest available). Updated annually.
Where is 2023 data?
Methodology:
Our nationwide meta-analysis overcomes the issues inherent in any crime database, including non-reporting and reporting errors. This is possible by associating the 9.4 million reported crimes in the U.S, including over 2 million geocoded point locations….
Read more about Scout's Crime Data
With a crime rate of 40 per one thousand residents, Columbus has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 25. Within Ohio, more than 97% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Columbus.
However, compared to other communities of similar population size, Columbus has a crime rate that is noticeably lower than the average. This means that for comparably sized cities all across America, Columbus is actually safer than most according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis of FBI crime data.
Now let us turn to take a look at how Columbus does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Columbus.
From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Columbus occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Columbus; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 221. This equates to a rate of 5 per one thousand inhabitants.
Significantly, based on the number of murders reported by the FBI and the number of residents living in the city, NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that Columbus experiences one of the higher murder rates in the nation when compared with cities and towns for all sizes of population, from the largest to the smallest.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Columbus is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Columbus, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 28, which is a rate of 36 per one thousand population.
Importantly, we found that Columbus has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Columbus is one in 124.
Columbus Crime
Data
FAQ on NeighborhoodScout's Crime Data
NeighborhoodScout® provides exclusive crime risk analytics for every neighborhood in America with up to 98% predictive accuracy. Crime risk indices are nationally comparable on a 1 – 100 scale, where 100 means safer than 100% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Crime risk data are updated annually. Raw crime incidents are sourced from all 18,000+ local law enforcement agencies – municipal, county, transit, park, port, university, tribal and more, assigned to localities, then built into NeighborhoodScout’s proprietary predictive models to provide a comprehensive crime risk profile for every neighborhood and address-vicinity in the U.S.
