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Home • Crime in the U.S. • 2018 • Crime in the U.S. 2018 • Tables • Table 17 • Table 17 Data Declaration

Table 17 Data Declaration

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Rate: Number of Crimes per 100,000 Inhabitants by Suburban and Nonsuburban Cities by Population Group, 2018

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

Important note about rape data

In 2013, the FBI’s UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition within the Summary Reporting System. The term “forcible” was removed from the offense name, and the definition was changed to “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.”

In 2016, the FBI Director approved the recommendation to discontinue the reporting of rape data using the UCR legacy definition beginning in 2017.

General comments

  • This table provides the rate per 100,000 inhabitants and the number of offenses known to law enforcement for violent crimes (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crimes (burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) in suburban and nonsuburban city law enforcement agencies submitting 12 months of complete data for 2018. In addition, the table furnishes the number of agencies meeting the criteria for inclusion in this table and provides the estimated population for each population group.
  • Suburban cities include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) but exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city.
  • Nonsuburban cities include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 in population that are not associated with an MSA.
  • The UCR Program does not have sufficient data to publish arson offenses in this table. Information about arson can be found in Arson Tables 1 and 2.
  • Due to a system upgrade, this table includes fewer agencies than in prior years.Previously, the principal cities were erroneously included in this table withnonsuburban agencies.

Methodology

  • The data used in creating this table were from all law enforcement agencies submitting 12 months of complete data (except arson) for 2018.
  • Rape data reported by agencies using the UCR legacy definition are not included in this table.
  • The FBI derived the offense rates by first dividing the aggregated offense counts by the aggregated populations covered by contributing agencies for which 12 months of complete data were supplied and then multiplying the resulting figure by 100,000.
  • The rape rates were calculated using the population of the agencies reporting rape using the revised definition of rape. See table below.

Populations used to calculate rape rates 
by Suburban and Nonsuburban Cities1 
by Population Group, 2018 

Population Group 

Agency count and population (based on revised rape data) 

Agency count 

Population 

Total Suburban Cities 

6,112 

57,379,692 

IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants) 

670 

22,987,592 

V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants) 

1,308 

20,968,118 

VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants) 

4,134 

13,423,982 

Total Nonsuburban Cities 

3,138 

14,405,011 

IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants) 

59 

1,907,334 

V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants) 

325 

4,909,666 

VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants 

2,754 

7,588,011 

1Suburban cities include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Suburban cities exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. Nonsuburban cities include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants that are not associated with a Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Population groups

The UCR Program uses the following population group designations:

Population Group 

Political Label 

Population Range 

I 

City 

250,000 and more 

II 

City 

100,000 to 249,999 

III 

City 

50,000 to 99,999 

IV 

City 

25,000 to 49,999 

V 

City 

10,000 to 24,999 

VI1,2 

City 

Less than 10,000 

VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)2 

County 

N/A 

IX (Metropolitan County)2 

County 

N/A 

1Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.
2Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Population estimation

For the 2018 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 2017 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 2017 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2018 population estimate.