CrimeMetric

Crime in Charleston, Illinois

Major crime in Charleston is 8% above the U.S. rate per resident: about the same for persons crimes and 9% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 7.8% from a year earlier.

Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this

Major crime
108
8% above the U.S. rate
16% above the Illinois rate
down 7.8% in a year
Persons crimes
105
about the U.S. rate
1.5 times the Illinois rate
down 4.8% in a year
Property crimes
109
9% above the U.S. rate
10% above the Illinois rate
down 8.4% in a year
Social disorder
112
12% above the U.S. rate
about the Illinois rate
down 5.2% in a year

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

Check an address in Charleston

Crime by type

Rape / sexual assault stands out most, at 2.6 times the U.S. rate

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

Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live

IndexPer year

How crime varies across Charleston

The middle half of Charleston residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 35 and 138; the typical (median) resident's is 90. The citywide figure (108) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.

Map of Charleston, with its census block groups shaded by major-crime index band
Block groups shaded by major-crime index, in the bar's bands below; pale gray where fewer than 100 people live. Highways and boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 0–5030.5%
  • 50–10029.3%
  • 100–20023.6%
  • 200–40016.6%
  • 400+0.0%

Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.

When it happens

Highest on weekday daytimes

Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.

Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm111
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am107
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm107
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am103
Trend and outlook

Major crime fell 7.8% in a year; across Illinois it fell 9.6%

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-7.8%IL -9.6%-17.4%IL -14.2%
Persons crimes-4.8%IL -14.4%-2.5%IL -6.8%
Property crimes-8.4%IL -8.9%-20.6%IL -15.4%
Social disorder-5.2%IL -12.0%-7.9%IL -8.2%

Change in expected crimes, with Illinois as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.

Similar-size places

Charleston against U.S. places with 10,000 to 25,000 residents

586 of the 2,149 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Charleston; the middle of the group is 72. The 9 nearest in population:

Kinston, NC18,741227
Bon Air, VA18,624196
Welby, CO18,761166
Lennox, CA18,638142
Millbrook, AL18,654134
Charleston, IL18,689108
Clayton, MO18,63851

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

Nearby places

Charleston 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, Mattoon (10 mi), is 24% below Charleston's rate.

Charleston108
Paris28 mi108
Casey16 mi96
Mattoon10 mi82
Arthur22 mi59
Marshall26 mi50
Tuscola22 mi48
Arcola16 mi33

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.

Questions about crime in Charleston

What are the most common crimes in Charleston?

By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 113 a year), shoplifting (about 73 a year) and burglary (about 55 a year). Compared with the U.S., rape / sexual assault stands out most: 2.6 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. Charleston's figures add up its 17 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • Charleston has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
  • 10.3% 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: 18,689. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in Charleston, Illinois." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/il/charleston

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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100