Crime in San Marcos, California
Major crime in San Marcos is 53% below the U.S. rate per resident: 49% lower for persons crimes and 54% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 36.5% 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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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 1.7 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in San Marcos 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 San Marcos
The middle half of San Marcos residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 20 and 60; the typical (median) resident's is 28. The citywide figure (47) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5069.8%
- 50–10023.1%
- 100–2005.4%
- 200–4000.0%
- 400+1.7%
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 36.5% 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.
San Marcos against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents
484 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than San Marcos; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
San Marcos has a higher major-crime index than 3 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Lake San Marcos (2 mi), is 39% below San Marcos's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in San Marcos
What are the most common crimes in San Marcos?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 197 a year), theft from vehicle (about 162 a year) and shoplifting (about 160 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 1.7 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. San Marcos's figures add up its 48 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- San Marcos's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 35.7% 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: 97,315. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in San Marcos, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/san-marcos
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Lake San Marcos2 mi29
- Vista6 mi67
- Escondido6 mi96
- Carlsbad7 mi68
- Hidden Meadows7 mi22
- Rancho Santa Fe8 mi39
- Encinitas8 mi60
- Oceanside10 mi102