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Crime in the United States, by Metropolitan Statistical Area, 2014

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

Important note about rape data

In 2013, the FBI UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition and removed the term “forcible” from the offense name. The UCR Program now defines rape as follows:

Rape (revised definition): Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim. (This includes the offenses of rape, sodomy, and sexual assault with an object as converted from data submitted via the National Incident-Based Reporting System.)

Rape (legacy definition): The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.

General comments

• This table provides crime data for Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and their estimated populations, the counties included in each MSA, and the 12-month crime counts for principal cities in MSAs. The table also includes statistics by area actually reporting, estimated total, and rate (per 100,000 inhabitants).

• This table provides crime statistics for the Metropolitan Divisions (MDs), which are subdivisions of MSAs that have a core population of at least 2.5 million people. The table also includes the rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) of offenses for each MD and actual and estimated offense totals.

• The UCR Program does not have sufficient data to estimate for arson.

Caution against ranking

Any comparisons of crime among different locales should take into consideration relevant factors in addition to the area’s crime statistics. Caution Against Ranking provides more details concerning the proper use of UCR statistics.

Methodology

• The data used in creating this table were from all law enforcement agencies in the UCR Program (including those submitting less than 12 months of data).

• Crime statistics include estimated offense totals (except arson) for agencies submitting less than 12 months of offense reports for each year.

• This table includes all currently designated MSAs in which at least 75 percent of the agencies within the MSA reported data to the UCR Program and for which the principal city/cities submitted 12 months of complete data for 2014.

• The statistics under the heading “Total area actually reporting” represent offense totals for agencies submitting 12 months of data and estimated totals for agencies submitting less than 12 but more than 2 months of data.

• The statistics under the heading “Estimated total” represent the above “Total area actually reporting” plus estimated totals for agencies submitting 2 months or less of data.

• The rape column presents the total number of rape offenses (legacy and/or revised definition) reported by each agency. Because of the technical limitations of the UCR Program’s legacy system (i.e., the Summary Reporting System), under which all UCR publication data processing occurs, it was not possible to separate rape data submitted with the legacy definition from rape data submitted with the revised definition by MSA. For example, if one agency is in two different MSAs and one MSA used the legacy definition and the other used the revised definition, the UCR Program could not reconcile the data. In these instances, an aggregated total for all rape offenses (regardless of which definition was used within the agency) is included.

Population estimation

For the 2014 population estimates used in this table, the FBI computed individual rates of growth from one year to the next for every city/town and county using 2010 decennial population counts and 2011 through 2013 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each agency’s rates of growth were averaged; that average was then applied and added to its 2013 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2014 population estimate.