Guidesfrom FBI data
How Much Crime Is Reported to Police?
Only part of crime is ever reported to police. The Bureau of Justice Statistics' figures on what share reaches police, and what that means for a reported rate.
The short answer
About half of violent crime, and a smaller share of property crime, is ever reported to police. The Bureau of Justice Statistics asks a national sample of households each year what happened to them, whether or not they told the police. In 2024 that survey found 23.3 violent victimizations for every 1,000 people age 12 or older, of which 11.2 per 1,000 were reported to police. A reported crime rate, the only kind on this site, counts the 11.2, not the 23.3.
Two ways of counting crime
The FBI's figures, which CrimeTally shows, start with a report to a police agency. The agency counts it, sends the FBI a monthly total, and the FBI publishes it. Nothing a victim kept to themselves is in that total.
The National Crime Victimization Survey starts with people instead. It interviews a national sample of households each year and asks about crimes against them, reported or not. It cannot say anything about one city or one police agency, because its sample is national. What it can say is how big the gap between crime and reported crime is, and for which offenses.
What share is reported, by offense
For 2020 to 2023 combined, the survey found these shares of victimizations reported to police, by the kind of place the victim lived in:
| Offense | Urban | Suburban | Rural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rape or sexual assault | 13.5% | 29.1% | 52.4% |
| Robbery | 63.0% | 49.0% | 72.8% |
| Aggravated assault | 49.8% | 56.0% | 56.2% |
| Simple assault | 32.3% | 39.0% | 46.0% |
| Violent crime, all | 38.4% | 42.5% | 51.0% |
| Burglary or trespassing | 41.8% | 42.6% | 43.8% |
| Motor vehicle theft | 72.7% | 76.5% | 81.4% |
| Other theft | 20.4% | 27.9% | 31.4% |
| Property crime, all | 25.1% | 32.6% | 36.1% |
Two things stand out. Motor vehicle theft is reported far more often than other theft, because an insurer needs a police report. And rape or sexual assault in urban areas was reported 13.5% of the time, so a reported count of that offense is a small part of what the survey finds.
What this means for a reported crime rate
Take the Burlington Police Department. In 2025 it reported 214 violent crimes to the FBI for the 44,354 people it serves, a reported rate of 482.5 per 100,000 people. That is the arithmetic, and it is checkable. What it is not is a count of violent crime in Burlington. The survey shares above are national; they cannot be applied to one agency to work out a “true” figure, and CrimeTally does not try. The number tells you what reached the police, and that is all it tells you.
It also means that two agencies with the same reported rate can be policing different amounts of crime, if the people in one place report more readily than the people in the other. That is one of the reasons the FBI warns against ranking places by its figures.
What this guide does not cover
It does not cover why people do or do not report, which the survey also asks about, or crimes against businesses, which the survey does not measure. It does not give a share for any state, city or agency, because no survey does.
Check your agency
The Crime Rate Lookup shows what any US police agency reported to the FBI, with the count, the population and the months reported, so you can see exactly what its rate is made of.
Sources
This guide is for informational purposes only and is not professional advice. A reported crime rate describes what one police agency reported to the FBI. It says nothing certain about any one home, street or school.
Last reviewed: October 2026 · Against BJS Criminal Victimization, 2024 (NCJ 310547) and Reporting to Police by Type of Crime, 2020–2023 (NCJ 310166).