Communities and police departments across the United States are grappling with rising rates of deadly violence, as the U.S. murder rate reached its highest level in nearly two and a half decades in 2020. Despite the recent surge in homicides, however, most Americans face a far higher risk of being the victim of crimes that do not involve violence.

Property crimes, a broad category of theft-related offenses, are by far the most commonly reported of all major crimes in the United States, accounting for over 80% of the most serious offenses tracked and reported by the FBI. Property crimes fall into one of three categories: larceny, burglary, and vehicle theft.

Larceny is defined as the unlawful taking of property — pickpocketing and shoplifting being two common examples. Burglary, defined as the illegal entry of a structure to commit a crime, such as theft, is the most severe form of property crime tracked by the FBI. Vehicle-theft, meanwhile, is a crime that can be either the theft, or the attempted theft, of a vehicle, such a car, motorcycle, or ATV.

There were a total of 86,654 property crimes reported in Wisconsin in 2020. Adjusting for population, there were 1,486 property crimes for every 100,000 people, the 12th lowest property crime rate among states and lower than the national rate of 1,958 per 100,000 people.

Larceny is by far the most commonly reported property crime nationwide. The same pattern holds in Wisconsin, where larceny accounted for about 74% of all major nonviolent offenses in 2020. Burglary, meanwhile, comprised about 15% of reported property crimes in the state, and motor vehicle theft accounted for 11%.

All data in this story, including population estimates used to calculate crime rates, are from the FBI.

 

Rank	State	Property crimes per 100k people, 2020	Total poperty crimes, 2020
1	Louisiana	2,884	133,989
2	New Mexico	2,842	59,859
3	Colorado	2,834	164,582
4	Washington	2,732	210,223
5	South Carolina	2,721	141,987
6	Oklahoma	2,706	107,705
7	Oregon	2,659	112,782
8	Arkansas	2,613	79,200
9	Missouri	2,531	155,698
10	Tennessee	2,493	171,675
11	Utah	2,464	80,091
12	Hawaii	2,411	33,928
13	Alaska	2,261	16,528
14	Texas	2,245	659,160
15	Arizona	2,228	165,323
16	North Carolina	2,227	236,026
17	Kansas	2,199	64,077
18	California	2,139	842,054
19	Alabama	2,137	105,161
20	Minnesota	2,125	120,212
21	North Dakota	2,124	16,256
22	Montana	2,121	22,917
23	Mississippi	2,102	62,351
24	Georgia	2,007	214,988
25	Delaware	1,961	19,355
26	South Dakota	1,957	17,468
27	Nevada	1,927	60,462
28	Nebraska	1,909	36,991
29	Ohio	1,850	216,363
30	Indiana	1,783	120,453
31	Kentucky	1,780	79,673
32	Florida	1,769	384,556
33	Iowa	1,698	53,725
34	Pennsylvania	1,644	210,167
35	Wyoming	1,611	9,379
36	Maryland	1,610	97,487
37	Connecticut	1,565	55,670
38	Illinois	1,559	196,287
39	Wisconsin	1,486	86,654
40	Virginia	1,456	125,114
41	New York	1,411	272,788
42	West Virginia	1,399	24,976
43	Michigan	1,361	135,633
44	Rhode Island	1,246	13,166
45	Vermont	1,217	7,586
46	New Jersey	1,158	102,875
47	Maine	1,156	15,610
48	Idaho	1,112	20,313
49	New Hampshire	1,099	15,014
50	Massachusetts	1,053	72,602

 

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