US crime rates fell nationwide in 2024, FBI report says
Violent crime in the United States fell 4.5 percent in 2024, according to a new FBI report, while property crime dropped 8.1 percent from the previous year.
The declines continue a trend seen since crime surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when homicides jumped nearly 30 percent in 2020 — one of the largest one-year increases since the FBI began keeping records in 1930. By 2022, violent crime had fallen close to pre-pandemic levels.
Homicides, which the FBI classifies as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, dropped nearly 15 percent in 2024. Reports of other violent offenses also decreased, including rape by 5.2 percent, robbery by 8.9 percent and aggravated assault by 3 percent.
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Property crime also fell across all major categories, with motor vehicle theft down 18.6 percent, burglary down 8.6 percent and larceny-theft down 5.5 percent. Reported hate crimes decreased 1.5 percent from the previous year.
The 2024 report draws on submissions from 16,675 law enforcement agencies — 2.1 percent more than last year — representing more than 95 percent of the U.S. population. Every city agency serving a population of 1 million or more people provided a full year of data. Participation in the FBI’s crime data collection is voluntary, and the data is based on crimes reported to police.
About 75 percent of participating agencies submitted information through the FBI’s new, more detailed National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, which covered 87 percent of the population.
The data release marks a shift from recent years when participation lagged following the FBI’s 2021 transition to the new system, which required many law enforcement agencies to invest in training and technology upgrades. In 2021, national reporting rates fell below 70 percent for the first time in two decades, forcing the FBI to estimate results for many jurisdictions.
The FBI’s crime trends report also includes new law enforcement safety data. Sixty-four officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2024, 43 officers were accidentally killed and 85,730 officers were assaulted.
Although the FBI’s 2024 report is a year behind, it aligns with other crime trend reports. The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, recently found that homicides and other serious offenses, including gun assaults and carjackings, fell in the first half of 2025 across 42 major cities compared to the same period in 2024.
