Crime in Ottumwa, Iowa
Major crime in Ottumwa is 16% above the U.S. rate per resident: about the same for persons crimes and 19% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 20.8% 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 2.5 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Ottumwa 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 Ottumwa
The middle half of Ottumwa residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 58 and 141; the typical (median) resident's is 84. The citywide figure (116) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5013.6%
- 50–10047.9%
- 100–20031.0%
- 200–4004.4%
- 400+3.1%
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 fell 20.8% 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.
Ottumwa against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
237 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Ottumwa; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Ottumwa 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, Albia (20 mi), is 64% below Ottumwa's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Ottumwa
What are the most common crimes in Ottumwa?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 158 a year), shoplifting (about 110 a year) and burglary (about 79 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 2.5 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. Ottumwa's figures add up its 26 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Ottumwa has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 66.0% 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: 26,578. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Ottumwa, Iowa." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ia/ottumwa
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Get a free API keyNearest cities we publish
Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Albia20 mi41
- Oskaloosa23 mi58
- Fairfield24 mi43
- Centerville31 mi66
- Pella38 mi30
- Knoxville42 mi76
- Washington43 mi86
- Mount Pleasant45 mi38