Crime in Council Bluffs, Iowa
Major crime in Council Bluffs is 2.1 times the U.S. rate per resident: 1.6 times for persons crimes and 2.2 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 32.1% 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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Theft from vehicle stands out most, at 3.1 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Council Bluffs 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 Council Bluffs
The middle half of Council Bluffs residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 109 and 213; the typical (median) resident's is 153. The citywide figure (209) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–506.1%
- 50–10010.9%
- 100–20054.6%
- 200–40021.4%
- 400+7.0%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekday daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 32.1% in a year; across Iowa it fell 10.5%
Change in expected crimes, with Iowa as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Council Bluffs against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents
27 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Council Bluffs; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Council Bluffs has a higher major-crime index than all of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Carter Lake (4 mi), is 6% below Council Bluffs's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Council Bluffs
What are the most common crimes in Council Bluffs?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 711 a year), theft from vehicle (about 517 a year) and shoplifting (about 321 a year). Compared with the U.S., theft from vehicle 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. Council Bluffs's figures add up its 64 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Council Bluffs's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 51.6% 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: 63,151. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Council Bluffs, Iowa." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ia/council-bluffs
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Get a free API keyNearest cities we publish
Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Carter Lake4 mi196
- Bellevue, NE9 mi68
- Omaha, NE10 mi159
- Ralston, NE10 mi76
- Offutt AFB, NE10 mi23
- La Vista, NE11 mi48
- Papillion, NE11 mi33
- Glenwood15 mi53