US Crime Review is dedicated to making data on criminal offenses occuring in the United States more accessible and easier to explore for the public at large.
| Year | Population Coverage % | Active Agencies |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 1.7425813213194898% | 339 |
| 1992 | 2.9617238238980956% | 638 |
| 1993 | 3.220295890301392% | 693 |
| 1994 | 3.4262444764797477% | 851 |
| 1995 | 5.161449113416154% | 1,232 |
| 1996 | 6.433537242786515% | 1,461 |
| 1997 | 8.38567144112923% | 1,840 |
| 1998 | 10.344916665583478% | 2,331 |
| 1999 | 12.804010937840204% | 2,801 |
| 2000 | 15.559584390221415% | 3,341 |
| 2001 | 16.54925154354412% | 3,584 |
| 2002 | 17.318881142084415% | 3,818 |
| 2003 | 19.173278784320832% | 4,285 |
| 2004 | 20.755886174481244% | 4,641 |
| 2005 | 22.223141295343048% | 4,888 |
| 2006 | 22.89684603578538% | 5,080 |
| 2007 | 23.773427756201528% | 5,227 |
| 2008 | 24.517338977856753% | 5,506 |
| 2009 | 25.811536918468008% | 5,968 |
| 2010 | 26.56385254641041% | 6,123 |
| 2011 | 27.299827028138456% | 6,331 |
| 2012 | 28.478731872396494% | 6,537 |
| 2013 | 29.0112983762491% | 6,784 |
| 2014 | 29.268879076395592% | 6,986 |
| 2015 | 30.316962191449154% | 7,181 |
| 2016 | 31.52894437618945% | 7,352 |
| 2017 | 32.249173252443455% | 7,613 |
| 2018 | 36.54939057776978% | 8,072 |
| 2019 | 46.36435562021599% | 9,556 |
| 2020 | 55.24796676882503% | 11,132 |
| 2021 | 71.22271474087898% | 13,825 |
| 2022 | 77.93529589093198% | 14,754 |
| 2023 | 83.11146414306182% | 15,480 |
| 2024 | 85.66360604142551% | 15,946 |
Law enforcement agencies & specialized task forces from all 50 states, Washington, DC., and even many Native American Tribes participate in annual reporting.
Methodology
We republish data from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), collected from thousands of partnering law enforcement agencies across the United States. We apply minimal transformations that preserve the underlying data only to improve its readability and usability. These include standardizing date formats, normalizing string values, drawing charts, and calculating basic aggregated statistics (e.g., totals, averages, trends).
We also use the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) definitions to group data by metropolitan area, along with U.S. Census Bureau data to estimate populations and define geographic boundaries.
Factors Impacting Accuracy and Completeness
The following factors may introduce gaps in the data's accuracy and completeness. However, their impact is often negligible for analyzing overall trends and patterns over time.
We believe providing researchers, journalists, and the public with access to this data—along with tools to explore it—remains immensely valuable for generating meaningful insights and informed discussions, even with these limitations.
Incomplete Reporting: Not all crimes are reported by victims, agency participation is voluntary, and some agencies cannot collect or submit all data types. As a result, the dataset is incomplete and may not fully represent actual crime trends or rates.
Nevertheless, exploring the reported incidents and observable trends remains highly informative and valuable to the public.
Incomplete Outcomes: Incident outcomes (e.g., arrests, convictions) are not consistently updated by agencies. This can limit insights into the resolution of crimes and its impact.
Nevertheless, the available data on incidents and offenders provides valuable perspective on the nature of reported crime.
Incomplete Adoption: As of December 2024, 17,088of more than 18,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies participate in NIBRS, covering approximately 85.7% of the population. Not all data is available for every agency or time period.
As adoption grows, coverage will improve. In the meantime, access to the available data is far more useful than having none at all.
Limited Federal Data: The dataset primarily reflects reporting from state, county, tribal, and local agencies—including many federal task forces—but does not yet include data directly from major federal agencies (e.g., FBI, DEA, ATF, DHS).
Federal adoption will further enhance completeness over time. However, since most crime occurs at the local level, this gap has limited impact on national trends.