CrimeMetric

Crime in Denver, Colorado

Major crime in Denver is 2.7 times the U.S. rate per resident: 2.4 times for persons crimes and 2.8 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 4.8% from a year earlier.

How we did this

We start from police agencies' crime reports to the FBI (estimated where an agency doesn't report), model how they spread across the census block groups each agency serves, then add up Denver's 571 block groups. Numbers are estimates with a range of uncertainty, not counts of individual incidents.

Rates are per resident, so areas where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can look high. More on the method

Major crime
273
2.7 times the U.S. rate
2.0 times the Colorado rate
down 4.8% in a year
Persons crimes
245
2.4 times the U.S. rate
1.9 times the Colorado rate
down 13.0% in a year
Property crimes
279
2.8 times the U.S. rate
2.0 times the Colorado rate
down 3.0% in a year
Social disorder
142
42% above the U.S. rate
47% above the Colorado rate
down 7.9% in a year

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

Crime by type

Theft from vehicle is highest, at 4.3 times the U.S. rate

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

Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live

IndexPer year

Persons crimes

Robbery283909
Murder16644

Property crimes

Burglary3233,957
Shoplifting1613,832

Social disorder

Vandalism2447,495
Trespassing1492,614

How crime varies across Denver

Half of Denver residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 117 and 319, and half live where it is below 186. The citywide figure (273) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.

Map of Denver, with its census block groups shaded by major-crime index band
Census block groups shaded by their band of major-crime index per resident, the same bands as the bar below. Pale gray areas have fewer than 100 residents, so no index is published. Gray lines are major highways. Boundaries and roads: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 0–506.3%
  • 50–10014.0%
  • 100–20034.0%
  • 200–40029.4%
  • 400+16.3%

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 6pm260
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am294
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm241
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am296

Trend and outlook

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-4.8%-10.7%
Persons crimes-13.0%-0.7%
Property crimes-3.0%-12.6%
Social disorder-7.9%-6.3%

Change in expected crimes. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.

Similar-size places

Denver against U.S. places with 500,000 to 1 million residents

4 of the 25 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Denver; the middle of the group is 190. The 9 nearest in population:

Seattle, WA797,520311
Detroit, MI656,201305
Denver, CO748,860273
Washington, DC706,013180
Boston, MA680,418146
Las Vegas, NV688,656141
El Paso, TX687,70583

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

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. Denver's figures add up its 571 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • Denver's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
  • 84.3% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
  • Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
  • Residents: 748,860. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in Denver, Colorado." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/co/denver

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Nearest cities we publish

Major-crime index, U.S. = 100