Crime Grade · Iowa

Safest Cities in Iowa

40 reporting Iowa cities ranked safest to least safe, by FBI violent crime rate per 100,000 residents. Data from the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

State median violent crime rate: 183.9 per 100,000. Cities with population ≥ 10,000. Letter grade is the national decile against all FBI-reporting U.S. cities — same grade everywhere on this site.

Rank	City	Population	Violent / 100k	Grade
1	Pleasant Hill	12,434	40.2	A1/10
2	Norwalk	16,087	49.7	A1/10
3	Carroll	10,080	59.5	A1/10
4	Waverly	10,616	75.4	A1/10
5	Johnston	25,287	79.1	A1/10
6	Clive	19,723	81.1	A1/10
7	Pella	11,092	81.1	A1/10
8	Boone	12,464	88.3	A1/10
9	Bettendorf	40,574	93.7	A1/10
10	Spencer	11,447	96.1	A1/10
11	North Liberty	22,270	98.8	A1/10
12	Ames	69,676	101.9	A1/10
13	Marion	42,788	116.9	A1/10
14	Urbandale	48,321	118.0	A1/10
15	Cedar Falls	41,596	129.8	A2/10
16	Indianola	16,407	140.2	A2/10
17	Waukee	37,525	141.2	A2/10
18	West Des Moines	74,901	145.5	A2/10
19	Ankeny	78,916	148.3	A2/10
20	Le Mars	10,691	168.4	A2/10
21	Altoona	23,376	183.9	A3/10
22	Coralville	24,383	184.6	A3/10
23	Muscatine	23,185	185.5	A3/10
24	Storm Lake	11,721	230.4	A3/10
25	Burlington	23,555	254.7	A3/10
26	Iowa City	77,166	255.3	A3/10
27	Cedar Rapids	137,918	261.7	B4/10
28	Ottumwa	25,696	280.2	B4/10
29	Marshalltown	27,964	282.5	B4/10
30	Clinton	24,037	282.9	B4/10
31	Oskaloosa	11,583	293.5	B4/10
32	Newton	15,699	305.8	B4/10
33	Mason City	26,866	323.8	B4/10
34	Dubuque	58,822	399.5	B5/10
35	Waterloo	67,531	469.4	B5/10
36	Sioux City	87,125	492.4	C6/10
37	Council Bluffs	62,635	525.3	C6/10
38	Des Moines	212,933	640.6	C7/10
39	Davenport	100,761	652.0	C7/10
40	Fort Dodge	24,892	932.0	D8/10

Most dangerous cities in Iowa →All Iowa cities →

About this ranking

Cities are ranked by the FBI's reported violent crime rate per 100,000 residents for the most recent fully-reported year (see individual city pages for the year shown). The list is restricted to cities with population ≥ 10,000 that report to the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer. Refreshed every six months.