Safety Directory › District of Columbia

District of Columbia Crime Rates & City Safety Scores

Population-adjusted FBI reporting rates; see the city profiles below.

Key facts

  1. 01

    District of Columbia displays a 11.78-point adjusted-score range in its 2025 source-year cohort: Washington, District of Columbia at 29.96 points out of 100 versus Downtown DC, District of Columbia at 18.18.

  2. 02

    District of Columbia displays 3 jurisdiction profiles from a scoring run containing 52 reportable jurisdictions in its 2025 source-year directory; 3 displayed profiles have scores.

  3. 03

    District of Columbia has 3 displayed jurisdictions with decreasing reported trajectories versus 0 increasing and 0 stable, comparing weighted 2024 reporting with 2025.

  4. 04

    Washington, District of Columbia has a reporting population of 672,079 residents versus 38,000 in Columbia Heights, District of Columbia, in the 2025 source-year displayed cohort.

Quick answer

In the Safety Atlas 2026 public safety index, the highest-scoring city in District of Columbia is Washington with an adjusted safety score of 29.96 out of 100, ranked across 3 tracked jurisdictions using 2025 FBI reporting.

Jump to section

District of Columbia city safety rankings

Ranked by adjusted Safety Atlas score. The table lists the 3 most populous jurisdictions in this directory; each rank is calculated within this displayed 3-jurisdiction cohort.

City / Jurisdiction Cohort Rank Population Safety Score Overall Trend Actions
Washington #1 of 3 672,079 29.96 ↓ Decreasing View Report →
Columbia Heights #2 of 3 38,000 20.62 ↓ Decreasing View Report →
Downtown DC #3 of 3 52,560 18.18 ↓ Decreasing View Report →

* Trajectory trends compare weighted year-over-year reporting from 2024 to 2025. Scores describe relative reported rates, not personal risk. Cohort rank covers only the 3 jurisdictions listed above.

Chart of District of Columbia crime statistics: District of Columbia agencies reported 10,772 violent offenses in 2025, 21.4% fewer than the 13,711 in 2024, with 2 agencies reporting each month. Shows violent and property offenses per month.
District of Columbia agencies reported 10,772 violent offenses in 2025, 21.4% fewer than the 13,711 in 2024, with 2 agencies reporting each month. Source: FBI NIBRS, 2025. Counts of reported offenses, not rates. CC BY 4.0
Download PNG

Data, definitions and reuse

Violent: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault. Property: burglary, larceny, vehicle theft, arson. Monthly counts are summed over the agencies that reported each month, and agency coverage changes over time.

Monthly source sums, 2025
MonthViolentPropertyAgencies reporting
Jan92435292
Feb75134652
Mar92838532
Apr87639552
May114541182
Jun99740952
Jul99241872
Aug84238032
Sep85833422
Oct90930692
Nov89330342
Dec65729352

Reuse under CC BY 4.0; indicate changes. Embed code:

<img src="https://www.safetyatlas.us/img/charts/district-of-columbia-crime-trend-2025.webp" alt="Chart of District of Columbia crime statistics: District of Columbia agencies reported 10,772 violent offenses in 2025, 21.4% fewer than the 13,711 in 2024, with 2 agencies reporting each month. Shows violent and property offenses per month." width="1200" height="675" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.safetyatlas.us/safety/dc/">Safety Atlas, District of Columbia</a>. <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</p>

Download square

Analyst takeaways · District of Columbia reporting-agency sums

District of Columbia in 7 numbers

  1. Every major offense fell in 2025. Homicide -36% (362 to 231), robbery -29%, burglary -21%, larceny-theft -16%, motor vehicle theft -15%, aggravated assault -12%.
  2. Almost half of all reports are property crime. 57,270 of 142,146 reports (40.3%); larceny-theft alone is 31,319 (22.0%).
  3. Clearances skew toward violent crime. 77% of homicides cleared vs 3% of motor vehicle thefts and 11% of larcenies (2025, reports cleared divided by reports received, reporting agencies only).
  4. Homicides fell by nearly a fifth. 231 reports in 2025 vs 362 in 2024 (-36%) across reporting agencies.
  5. The biggest volume is not violent. Simple assault (25,476) alone outweighs the entire personal-safety total (10,828, 7.6% of reports).
  6. Watch the monthly shape. Larceny-theft peaked in Jul (3,053) and troughed in Dec (2,225), a 1.4× swing inside a single year.
  7. These are reporting-agency sums. 2 of 3 agencies reported homicide in December 2025 (vs 2 in January); totals reflect who reported, not a census of crime.

Takeaways are computed from summed FBI CDE reported counts (source year 2025, 3 agencies in file). They describe reported data, not forecasts; check the methodology and coverage notes before reuse.

Every number on this page ships in the District of Columbia workbook.

Buy the DC workbook - $399

FBI NIBRS monthly detail · District of Columbia reporting-agency sums, source year 2025

District of Columbia monthly trend: reporting-agency sums through December 2025

Annual totals hide timing. The bars below show 2025 reported counts per month summed across reporting agencies for three indicator offenses. Counts only; there is no honest monthly denominator at this grain, so no rates are shown.

Larceny-theft, month by month

↓ Decreasing, 31319 reports vs 37293 in 2024 (down 16% in reported data).

Larceny-theft 2025: summed reported counts and reporting agencies, District of Columbia
MonthCountAgenciesCoverage
Jan 20252,4492Full
Feb 20252,3542Full
Mar 20252,7052Full
Apr 20252,8702Full
May 20252,9292Full
Jun 20253,0002Full
Jul 20253,0532Full
Aug 20252,6792Full
Sep 20252,5262Full
Oct 20252,2832Full
Nov 20252,2462Full
Dec 20252,2252Full

Simple assault, month by month

→ Stable, 25476 reports vs 24884 in 2024 (about level in reported data).

Simple assault 2025: summed reported counts and reporting agencies, District of Columbia
MonthCountAgenciesCoverage
Jan 20251,8522Full
Feb 20251,6802Full
Mar 20252,2562Full
Apr 20252,1552Full
May 20252,3782Full
Jun 20252,0862Full
Jul 20252,2842Full
Aug 20252,2502Full
Sep 20252,2062Full
Oct 20252,2762Full
Nov 20252,0592Full
Dec 20251,9942Full

Vandalism, month by month

↓ Decreasing, 22590 reports vs 29992 in 2024 (down 25% in reported data).

Vandalism 2025: summed reported counts and reporting agencies, District of Columbia
MonthCountAgenciesCoverage
Jan 20251,9482Full
Feb 20251,8192Full
Mar 20252,2322Full
Apr 20252,3092Full
May 20252,3162Full
Jun 20252,3722Full
Jul 20252,1432Full
Aug 20251,8172Full
Sep 20251,4152Full
Oct 20251,3712Full
Nov 20251,5582Full
Dec 20251,2902Full

Clearances: what got cleared in 2025

77% of homicides cleared vs 3% of motor vehicle thefts, clearance follows violent crime, not volume.

Clearances 2025: reports cleared per 100 reports received, highest rate first
OffenseReportedClearedClearance rate
Homicide23117977.5%
Aggravated Assault5,5923,16256.5%
Robbery4,6062,01743.8%
Burglary2,7001,04038.5%
Larceny-theft31,3193,54011.3%
Motor Vehicle Theft9,3632592.8%

Clearances ÷ reports received; clearances may concern earlier reports, so this is not a solve rate.

Monthly counts summed over reporting agencies, FBI CDE source year 2025. A hyphen (-) means not reported, not zero. Totals reflect who reported, not a census of crime.

Downloads: District of Columbia monthly series (JSON) · same data (CSV) · build manifest

District of Columbia city reports

Reading the comparison

Scores compare reported rates; they do not predict personal risk. Methodology · Coverage

Monthly count comparisons

District of Columbia reporting agencies recorded 3,053 larceny-theft offenses in Jul 2025 versus 2,225 in Dec 2025, a difference of 828 reports; 2 agencies reported in the peak-count month compared with 2 in the minimum-count month, within 12 displayed months totaling 31,319 reports (FBI CDE reporting-agency sums, not statewide population rates).

District of Columbia reporting agencies recorded 2,378 simple assault offenses in May 2025 versus 1,680 in Feb 2025, a difference of 698 reports; 2 agencies reported in the peak-count month compared with 2 in the minimum-count month, within 12 displayed months totaling 25,476 reports (FBI CDE reporting-agency sums, not statewide population rates).

District of Columbia reporting agencies recorded 2,372 vandalism offenses in Jun 2025 versus 1,290 in Dec 2025, a difference of 1,082 reports; 2 agencies reported in the peak-count month compared with 2 in the minimum-count month, within 12 displayed months totaling 22,590 reports (FBI CDE reporting-agency sums, not statewide population rates).

District of Columbia reporting agencies recorded 179 cleared homicide offenses against 231 reports received in 2025 (77.5%), compared with 259 cleared motor vehicle theft offenses against 9,363 reports (2.8%), a 74.7-percentage-point difference between the displayed clearance ratios; clearances can concern earlier reports.

Washington, District of Columbia records 29.96 adjusted score points out of 100 in the 2025 source-year directory, 7.04 points above the displayed scored-cohort mean of 22.92; its reporting population of 672,079 residents accounts for 88.1% of the 762,639 residents summed across the 3 displayed jurisdiction populations.

Downtown DC, District of Columbia records 18.18 adjusted score points out of 100 in the 2025 source-year directory, 4.74 points below the displayed scored-cohort mean of 22.92; its reporting population of 52,560 residents accounts for 6.9% of the 762,639 residents summed across the 3 displayed jurisdiction populations.

Columbia Heights, District of Columbia records 20.62 adjusted score points out of 100 in the 2025 source-year directory, 2.30 points below the displayed scored-cohort mean of 22.92; its reporting population of 38,000 residents accounts for 5.0% of the 762,639 residents summed across the 3 displayed jurisdiction populations.

District of Columbia reporting-agency sums contain 31,319 larceny-theft reports in 2025 versus 37,293 in 2024, 5,974 reports (16.0%) fewer across the two complete twelve-month source series; monthly reporting participation ranges from 2 to 2 agencies across those years, so the count change includes differences in participation and is not a population-adjusted rate change.

District of Columbia reporting-agency sums contain 25,476 simple assault reports in 2025 versus 24,884 in 2024, 592 reports (2.4%) more across the two complete twelve-month source series; monthly reporting participation ranges from 2 to 2 agencies across those years, so the count change includes differences in participation and is not a population-adjusted rate change.

District of Columbia reporting-agency sums contain 22,590 vandalism reports in 2025 versus 29,992 in 2024, 7,402 reports (24.7%) fewer across the two complete twelve-month source series; monthly reporting participation ranges from 2 to 2 agencies across those years, so the count change includes differences in participation and is not a population-adjusted rate change.

DC coverage summary

How to read the District of Columbia directory

The scoring run contains 52 reportable jurisdictions in District of Columbia. This public directory displays the 3 most populous jurisdictions in the current scored comparison set, and each displayed city's rank is calculated within this displayed 3-jurisdiction cohort.

Within the displayed cohort, Washington has the highest adjusted score at 29.96, and Downtown DC has the lowest at 18.18. The public-cohort range is 11.78 points; use the offense-rate tables on each city profile to understand that spread.

Current trajectories in the displayed cohort: 3 decreasing, 0 stable, and 0 increasing. Trends compare weighted 2024 and 2025 reporting and do not forecast future incidents.

Review the scoring method, coverage report, and buyer checklist before citing or purchasing data.

Explore Safety Resources

National Report

What Is the Safest State?

Compare population-adjusted crime scores across all 50 states.

Read Article →
Documentation

Our Methodology

Learn how we calculate safety indexes using log-relief normalization.

View Methodology →
Commercial Use

Safety Atlas Datasets

Get API access or download offline data workbooks for all states.

Explore Suites →