Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home Crime in the U.S. 2012 Crime in the U.S. 2012 Tables 1TableDataDecOverviewPDF

Table 1 Data Declaration

Return to table

Table 1 Data Declaration

Download Printable Document

Table 1

Crime in the United States, by Volume and Rate per 100,000 Inhabitants, 1993–2012

Table 1A

Crime in the United States, Percent Change in Volume and Rate per 100,000 Inhabitants for 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years

The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

General comments

  • These tables provide the estimated number of offenses and the rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) of crime in the United States for 1993 through 2012, as well as the 2-, 5-, and 10-year trends for 2012 based on these estimates.
  • The UCR Program does not have sufficient data to estimate for arson.

Methodology

  • The data used in creating these tables were from all law enforcement agencies participating in the UCR Program (including those submitting less than 12 months of data).
  • Crime statistics for the nation include estimated offense totals (except arson) for agencies submitting less than 12 months of offense reports for each year.
  • The 2012 statistics in these tables are consistent with those published in Tables 2 and 4.

Offense estimation

These tables contain statistics for the entire United States. Because not all law enforcement agencies provide data for complete reporting periods, the FBI includes estimated crime numbers in these presentations. The FBI estimates data for three areas: Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), cities outside MSAs, and nonmetropolitan counties. The FBI computes estimates for participating agencies not providing 12 months of complete data. For agencies supplying 3 to 11 months of data, the national UCR Program estimates for the missing data by following a standard estimation procedure using the data provided by the agency. If an agency has supplied less than 3 months of data, the FBI computes estimates by using the known crime figures of similar areas within a state and assigning the same proportion of crime volumes to nonreporting agencies. The estimation process considers the following: population size covered by the agency; type of jurisdiction, e.g., police department versus sheriff’s office; and geographic location.

In response to various circumstances, the FBI has estimated offense totals for some states. For example, problems at the state level (e.g., noncompliance with UCR guidelines, technological difficulties) have, at times, resulted in data that cannot be used. Also, efforts to convert to the National Incident-Based Reporting System have contributed to the need for unique estimation procedures.

A summary of state-specific and offense-specific estimation procedures is available in the Estimation of state-level data section of the Methodology.

Population estimation

The population estimates used in this table are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1 for each year except for 2000 and 2010, which are decennial census counts, and 2006 through 2009, each of which was adjusted. The FBI calculated 2012 state growth rates using the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 and 2012 provisional state/national population estimates. The FBI then estimated population figures for city and county jurisdictions by applying the 2012 state growth rate to the updated 2011 U.S. Census Bureau data.