Crime in Chico, California
Major crime in Chico is 46% above the U.S. rate per resident: 1.8 times for persons crimes and 40% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 1.6% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Rape / sexual assault stands out most, at 3.1 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Chico for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Chico
The middle half of Chico residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 61 and 172; the typical (median) resident's is 87. The citywide figure (146) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5012.4%
- 50–10044.4%
- 100–20026.9%
- 200–4008.9%
- 400+7.4%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest at night
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 1.6% in a year; across California it fell 7.4%
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.
Chico against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
78 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Chico; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Chico has a higher major-crime index than 7 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Durham (7 mi), is 66% below Chico's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Chico
What are the most common crimes in Chico?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 664 a year), theft from vehicle (about 584 a year) and shoplifting (about 400 a year). Compared with the U.S., rape / sexual assault 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. Chico's figures add up its 81 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Chico's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 72.7% 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: 103,506. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Chico, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/chico
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Durham7 mi49
- Paradise12 mi78
- Magalia14 mi65
- Orland18 mi54
- Thermalito20 mi67
- Corning22 mi99
- Oroville22 mi205
- South Oroville24 mi73