Crime in Urbandale, Iowa
Major crime in Urbandale is 60% below the U.S. rate per resident: 59% lower for persons crimes and 60% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 4.5% 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 1.6 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Urbandale 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 Urbandale
The middle half of Urbandale residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 19 and 44; the typical (median) resident's is 29. The citywide figure (40) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5076.7%
- 50–10015.2%
- 100–2008.1%
- 200–4000.0%
- 400+0.0%
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 4.5% 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.
Urbandale against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
819 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Urbandale; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Urbandale has a higher major-crime index than 1 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Clive (2 mi), is 1.5 times Urbandale's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Urbandale
What are the most common crimes in Urbandale?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 100 a year), shoplifting (about 63 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 55 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 1.6 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. Urbandale's figures add up its 27 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Urbandale's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 26.6% 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: 48,929. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Urbandale, Iowa." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ia/urbandale
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Clive2 mi62
- Johnston3 mi41
- Windsor Heights4 mi236
- Grimes4 mi54
- West Des Moines5 mi80
- Waukee6 mi31
- Des Moines8 mi164
- Ankeny10 mi72