Colorado: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Colorado leads the country in motor vehicle theft, and Denver had the highest car theft rate of all U.S. metro areas.
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Derek Prall
July 22, 2024 Derek Prall Derek Prall , Home Security Expert | July 22, 2024
Statewide Crime Trends in Colorado Property Crime in Colorado Violent Crime in Colorado

Several major metro areas in Colorado have some of the nation’s highest crime rates, including the Denver metro area, which includes Aurora, Lakewood and Glendale. The Denver metro had the overall No. 1 motor vehicle theft rate among the 300-plus metro areas with available data.

The Pueblo metro area, which includes places like Pueblo, Vineland, and Boone, also has relatively high crime rates. This metro ranked first in the nation overall for its total property crime rate and fourth in violent crimes.

On a city level, Colorado is home to the city with the second-highest property crime rate ― the suburban Denver enclave of Glendale ― which has a property crime rate of more than 20,000 per 100,000 people. Glendale also has the highest violent crime rate of any community in Colorado, which is approximately 1,866 per 100,000.

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Glendale’s size and proximity to Denver, which has a metro population of nearly 3 million people, are likely major contributors to its high crime rates. The city covers an area of just 365 acres (less than a square mile) but is home to nearly 5,000 residents. So, the nature of crime statistics could play a bigger role in Glendale’s position on the list than the actual state of safety in the city itself.

Property Crime in Colorado

When determining property crime rates in Colorado, we looked at larceny, theft, burglary and motor vehicle theft incidents.

  • Colorado’s total property crime rate is 3,148 per 100,000 people, the second-highest rate in the country behind Washington, where the property crime rate is 3,356 per 100,000.
  • Like everywhere else, larceny is the most common type of property crime in Colorado, but motor vehicle theft appears to be a more pressing problem as the state leads the nation in that category:

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Violent Crime in Colorado

Violent crimes include murder/nonnegligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, rape and robbery.

  • Colorado’s violent crime rate is 493 per 100,000 people, which puts it nearly 30 percent higher than the overall national rate of 381 per 100,000.
  • The state ranks fourth in the prevalence of rape with that crime occurring at a rate of 63 per 100,000 people, behind Alaska, Arkansas and Michigan.

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Our data

Our data comes from comprehensive reporting compiled by the FBI and accessed via the Crime Data Explorer website. Property and violent crime state figures were drawn from Table 5 of the 2022 Crime in the U.S. Report. Metropolitan figures were found in Table 6, Crime in the U.S. by Metropolitan Statistical Area. City-level figures were drawn from Table 8, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement by State by City. The population figures in that table are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1, 2020.

Limitations: According to the FBI, the data in the publication tables may differ from those released on the Explorer Pages of the CDE. These variations are due to the difference in methodologies between the publication tables and data displayed on the CDE. Please note that crime statistics are not the sole measure of a city’s safety.

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