Crime rates for Waterloo, IA

The crime rate in Waterloo is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 53 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 Waterloo is 1 in 19. Based on FBI crime data, Waterloo is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Iowa, Waterloo has a crime rate that is higher than 90% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.

Importantly, when you compare Waterloo to other cities of similar population, the Waterloo crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how Waterloo does relative to all communities in America of all sizes, when NeighborhoodScout compared it to communities of similar population size, its crime rate per thousand residents stands out as higher than most.

The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Waterloo 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 Waterloo.

From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Waterloo 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 Waterloo – such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder – is 1 in 212. This equates to a rate of 5 per one thousand inhabitants.

NeighborhoodScout's analysis also reveals that Waterloo's rate for property crime is 48 per one thousand population. This makes Waterloo a place where there is an above average chance of becoming a victim of a property crime, when compared to all other communities in America of all population sizes. Property crimes are motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny, and burglary. Your chance of becoming a victim of any of these crimes in Waterloo is one in 21.