Samuel Stebbins viaThe Center Square – Burglary is the most serious nonviolent offense tracked by the FBI. There were just over 1 million burglaries reported in the United States in 2020, a 7% decline from the previous year.
While burglary rates have been declining in most of the country, some major metropolitan areas are bucking the national trend, reporting a year-over-year uptick in break-ins.
In the Lewiston metro area, which covers parts of Idaho and Washington, the total number of burglaries climbed by 6.3% – from 239 in 2019 to 254 in 2020. The resulting increase in the area’s population-adjusted burglary rate was one of the largest of any U.S. metro area.
The reported burglary rate in Lewiston rose by 23.2 incidents for every 100,000 people from 2019 to 2020. Due in part to the increase, the metro area’s burglary rate of 400 reported incidents per 100,000 people is higher than the national rate of 314 burglaries per 100,000 people.
All crime data used in this story is from the FBI’s 2019 and 2020 Uniform Crime Reports. We considered all U.S. metropolitan areas for which the boundaries defined by the FBI match the boundaries as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Rank | Metro area | 1-yr. increase in burglary rate (burglaries per 100k people) | Burglaries per 100k people, 2020 | Total burglaries, 2020 | Total burglaries, 2019 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bismarck, ND | 206.6 | 470.4 | 610 | 340 |
2 | Fargo, ND-MN | 178.8 | 648.6 | 1,611 | 1,164 |
3 | Decatur, IL | 156.5 | 658.9 | 677 | 520 |
4 | Rapid City, SD | 124.1 | 616.5 | 887 | 693 |
5 | Grand Junction, CO | 121.0 | 487.3 | 751 | 562 |
6 | Kennewick-Richland, WA | 121.0 | 435.3 | 1,323 | 945 |
7 | Yakima, WA | 112.9 | 566.2 | 1,420 | 1,140 |
8 | Boulder, CO | 101.3 | 405.2 | 1,328 | 999 |
9 | Napa, CA | 97.4 | 382.5 | 522 | 395 |
10 | Dubuque, IA | 87.6 | 273.7 | 267 | 180 |
11 | Danville, IL | 87.0 | 880.4 | 658 | 602 |
12 | Longview, WA | 78.8 | 392.1 | 436 | 343 |
13 | Eau Claire, WI | 78.4 | 328.2 | 558 | 423 |
14 | Billings, MT | 75.3 | 472.5 | 868 | 721 |
15 | Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL | 73.8 | 493.9 | 1,866 | 1,596 |
16 | Cedar Rapids, IA | 65.9 | 465.9 | 1,278 | 1,091 |
17 | Bowling Green, KY | 60.5 | 420.5 | 763 | 645 |
18 | Pocatello, ID | 60.3 | 360.8 | 349 | 288 |
19 | San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA | 59.2 | 439 | 20,761 | 18,004 |
20 | Idaho Falls, ID | 52.8 | 345 | 534 | 443 |
21 | Niles, MI | 43.3 | 371.1 | 566 | 503 |
22 | El Centro, CA | 39.9 | 484.7 | 873 | 806 |
23 | Syracuse, NY | 39.6 | 291.5 | 1,874 | 1,626 |
24 | Owensboro, KY | 38.8 | 449.8 | 539 | 490 |
25 | Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT | 37.9 | 234.7 | 2,381 | 1,999 |
26 | Greeley, CO | 34.9 | 253 | 838 | 701 |
27 | Waco, TX | 31.1 | 483.8 | 1,332 | 1,234 |
28 | Madison, WI | 30.8 | 290.7 | 1,951 | 1,733 |
29 | Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA | 28.2 | 572.1 | 3,277 | 3,066 |
30 | Ithaca, NY | 28.0 | 220.5 | 224 | 197 |
31 | Enid, OK | 27.6 | 703.9 | 430 | 411 |
32 | Sioux Falls, SD | 26.1 | 395.6 | 1,080 | 993 |
33 | Bangor, ME | 24.5 | 170.6 | 260 | 221 |
34 | Hanford-Corcoran, CA | 24.3 | 297.7 | 451 | 410 |
35 | Tyler, TX | 23.5 | 423.7 | 994 | 926 |
36 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 23.4 | 369.1 | 7,338 | 6,923 |
37 | Lewiston, ID | 23.2 | 400.4 | 254 | 239 |
38 | Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX | 22.8 | 336.6 | 7,687 | 6,958 |
39 | Bend, OR | 22.7 | 196.8 | 397 | 341 |
40 | Appleton, WI | 22.0 | 133.4 | 319 | 266 |
41 | Bellingham, WA | 21.9 | 381.8 | 885 | 821 |
42 | Pueblo, CO | 18.7 | 660.4 | 1,112 | 1,077 |
43 | Fairbanks, AK | 17.0 | 546.7 | 180 | 178 |
44 | Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN | 16.7 | 320.3 | 6,307 | 5,896 |
45 | St. Joseph, MO-KS | 16.1 | 558.7 | 698 | 685 |
46 | Oshkosh-Neenah, WI | 15.7 | 213.6 | 368 | 339 |
47 | Green Bay, WI | 15.5 | 146.4 | 475 | 423 |
48 | Colorado Springs, CO | 15.3 | 412.8 | 3,106 | 2,972 |
49 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | 12.6 | 259.4 | 1,272 | 1,228 |
50 | Wenatchee, WA | 7.2 | 197 | 239 | 229 |
