CrimeMetric

Crime in Arcata, California

Major crime in Arcata is 13% above the U.S. rate per resident: 24% higher for persons crimes and 11% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 7.5% from a year earlier.

Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this

Major crime
113
13% above the U.S. rate
6% below the California rate
down 7.5% in a year
Persons crimes
124
24% above the U.S. rate
7% below the California rate
down 4.7% in a year
Property crimes
111
11% above the U.S. rate
6% below the California rate
down 8.2% in a year
Social disorder
208
2.1 times the U.S. rate
2.0 times the California rate
down 5.6% in a year

Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.

Check an address in Arcata

Crime by type

Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 3.1 times the U.S. rate

Expected crimes per year in Arcata for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.

Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live

IndexPer year

How crime varies across Arcata

The middle half of Arcata residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 54 and 120; the typical (median) resident's is 70. The citywide figure (113) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.

Map of Arcata, with its census block groups shaded by major-crime index band
Block groups shaded by major-crime index, in the bar's bands below; pale gray where fewer than 100 people live. Highways and boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 0–5023.0%
  • 50–10041.4%
  • 100–20018.9%
  • 200–40016.8%
  • 400+0.0%

Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.

When it happens

Highest at night

Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.

Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm108
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am121
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm99
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am124
Trend and outlook

Major crime fell 7.5% in a year; across California it fell 7.4%

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-7.5%CA -7.4%-11.9%CA -14.1%
Persons crimes-4.7%CA -3.5%-2.5%CA -6.1%
Property crimes-8.2%CA -8.4%-14.3%CA -16.1%
Social disorder-5.6%CA -4.9%-6.9%CA -9.4%

Change in expected crimes, with California as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.

Similar-size places

Arcata against U.S. places with 10,000 to 25,000 residents

529 of the 2,149 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Arcata; the middle of the group is 72. The 9 nearest in population:

Brownwood, TX19,173155
Seabrook, MD19,118132
Arcata, CA19,142113
Calhoun, GA19,12192
Dover, NJ19,15939
Sylvania, OH19,18239

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.

Nearby places

Arcata has a higher major-crime index than 6 of its 8 nearest neighbors

The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, McKinleyville (5 mi), is 54% below Arcata's rate.

Eureka8 mi147
Arcata113
Fortuna20 mi81
Rio Dell27 mi77
Pine Hills12 mi49

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.

Questions about crime in Arcata

What are the most common crimes in Arcata?

By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 98 a year), theft from vehicle (about 76 a year) and shoplifting (about 71 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 3.1 times the U.S. rate per resident.

How we calculated this

Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Arcata's figures add up its 12 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • Arcata's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
  • 13.1% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
  • Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
  • Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
  • Residents: 19,142. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in Arcata, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/arcata

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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100