Crime Grade · FBI UCR Data · 2025
Santa Cruz, CA Crime Grade
How Santa Cruz grades for violent crime against every other reporting U.S. city — and against the rest of California — based on the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting data.
National
9/10
vs. all U.S. cities ≥ 25,000 population
California
9/10
vs. California cities ≥ 10,000 population
In 2025, the violent crime rate in Santa Cruz, CA was 531.4 per 100,000 residents (332 incidents over a population of 62,473). That puts Santa Cruz Infinity% above the U.S. rate of 0.0 and 28% above the California statewide rate of 415.5.
That ranks Santa Cruz #3,325 of 3,771 ranked U.S. cities, safer than 12% of them, and #298 of 371 in California. Violent crime is down 15% year over year and up 12% over the last five years.
Santa Cruz, CA crime — key facts
- National Crime Grade
- F (9/10)
- California Grade
- F (9/10)
- Violent crime rate
- 531.4 / 100k
- National rank
- #3,325 of 3,771
- CA rank
- #298 of 371
- Safer than
- 12% of U.S. cities
- Year over year
- down 15%
- 5-year change
- up 12%
- Population
- 62,473
- Reporting agency
- Santa Cruz Police Department
- Data year
- 2025 · FBI UCR
Reported by Santa Cruz Police Department (FBI ORI CA0440200) to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Download the full dataset (CSV) · methodology.
About Santa Cruz, CA
Also known as
- City of the Holy Cross
- Surf City
- Newport of the Pacific
- Newport of California
- Swantacruz
Name history sourced from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) — public-domain federal geographic-names data.
Violent crime rate, 5-year trend
Per 100,000 residents. Santa Cruz (red), California (blue), U.S. average (gray dashed).
Santa Cruz vs. U.S., 2025 — by offense
Rates per 100,000 residents for each offense category.
Full data, last 5 years
Rates per 100,000 residents. Raw counts in parentheses.
| Offense | 2020 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 474.9(309) | 725.1(447) | 654.2(404) | 622.7(382) | 531.4(332) |
| Murder | 3.1(2) | 1.6(1) | 0.0(0) | 4.9(3) | 0.0(0) |
| Rape | 50.7(33) | 61.6(38) | 32.4(20) | 50.5(31) | 52.8(33) |
| Robbery | 116.8(76) | 197.9(122) | 195.9(121) | 104.3(64) | 104.0(65) |
| Aggravated assault | 304.3(198) | 463.9(286) | 425.9(263) | 462.9(284) | 374.6(234) |
| Property crime | 3506.8(2,282) | 3675.6(2,266) | 2526.2(1,560) | 2606.5(1,599) | 2505.1(1,565) |
| Burglary | 410.3(267) | 410.4(253) | 194.3(120) | 135.3(83) | 121.7(76) |
| Larceny | 2664.7(1,734) | 2890.5(1,782) | 2093.8(1,293) | 2238.1(1,373) | 2196.1(1,372) |
| Motor vehicle theft | 362.7(236) | 309.8(191) | 181.4(112) | 159.7(98) | 160.1(100) |
How the Crime Grade is calculated
- What is the source of the Santa Cruz, CA Crime Grade?
- FBI Uniform Crime Reporting via the Crime Data Explorer. Agency-level data, pulled directly. No third-party aggregators, no proprietary score.
- What metric does the Santa Cruz Crime Grade use?
- Violent crime rate per 100,000 residents (murder + rape + robbery + aggravated assault), most recent fully-reported year.
- How is the national decile for Santa Cruz calculated?
- Santa Cruz's rate placed against all FBI-reporting U.S. cities with population ≥ 25,000. 1 = safest.
- How is the California state decile calculated?
- Same calculation restricted to California cities with population ≥ 10,000.
- How do decile scores convert to a letter grade?
- 1–3 = A · 4–5 = B · 6–7 = C · 8 = D · 9–10 = F.
- How often is the Santa Cruz Crime Grade refreshed?
- Twice a year. The FBI typically releases the prior year's full data each September.
- What are the limits of this Crime Grade?
- The FBI relies on local agency reporting. Rates reflect what was reported, not what occurred.
Nearby cities in California
Comparable California cities by population.
Compare Santa Cruz to other places
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