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 2023 calendar year; released from FBI in October 2024 (latest available). Updated annually."
Where is 2024 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
The crime rate in Columbia is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 28 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Columbia is 1 in 36. Based on FBI crime data, Columbia is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Maryland, Columbia has a crime rate that is higher than 85% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.
How does the crime rate in Columbia compare to similar sized communities across America? When NeighborhoodScout compared Columbia with other communities its size, we found that the crime rate was near the average for all other communities of similar size. So, whether Columbia's crime rate is high or low compared to all places in the US, when we control for population size and compare it to places that are similar in size, it is near the middle of the pack in crime rate; not much more or less dangerous, and about what we would expect from the statistics.
Now let us turn to take a look at how Columbia 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 Columbia.
From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Columbia 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 Columbia; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 463. This equates to a rate of 2 per one thousand inhabitants.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Columbia is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Columbia, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 39, which is a rate of 26 per one thousand population.
Importantly, we found that Columbia 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 Columbia is one in 203.
Columbia 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.
