Crime in Columbia, Maryland
Major crime in Columbia is about the U.S. rate per resident: 56% lower for persons crimes and 18% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 18.0% 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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Shoplifting stands out most, at 2.0 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Columbia 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 Columbia
The middle half of Columbia residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 35 and 77; the typical (median) resident's is 51. The citywide figure (104) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5047.5%
- 50–10038.6%
- 100–2004.9%
- 200–4003.4%
- 400+5.6%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest in the daytime
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 18.0% in a year; across Maryland it fell 10.0%
Change in expected crimes, with Maryland as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Columbia against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
146 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Columbia; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Columbia has a higher major-crime index than 7 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Ilchester (4 mi), is 61% below Columbia's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Columbia
What are the most common crimes in Columbia?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 672 a year), theft from vehicle (about 381 a year) and other larceny (about 357 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 2.0 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. Columbia's figures add up its 60 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Columbia has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 48.8% 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: 106,185. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Columbia, Maryland." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/md/columbia
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Ilchester4 mi41
- Savage4 mi58
- Scaggsville5 mi29
- Ellicott City5 mi65
- North Laurel5 mi66
- Jessup6 mi61
- Elkridge6 mi76
- Laurel7 mi196