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
With a crime rate of 39 per one thousand residents, Des Moines has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 26. Within Washington, more than 90% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Des Moines.
Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 31,988, Des Moines has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Des Moines does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Des Moines.
Now let us turn to take a look at how Des Moines 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 Des Moines.
From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Des Moines 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 Des Moines; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 317. This equates to a rate of 3 per one thousand inhabitants.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Des Moines is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Des Moines, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 28, which is a rate of 35 per one thousand population.
Importantly, we found that Des Moines 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 Des Moines is one in 76.
Des Moines 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.
