West Virginia Crime Rates & City Safety Scores
Population-adjusted FBI reporting rates; see the city profiles below.
Key facts
- 01
West Virginia displays a 28.74-point adjusted-score range in its 2025 source-year cohort: Morgantown, West Virginia at 61.8 points out of 100 versus Huntington, West Virginia at 33.06.
- 02
West Virginia displays 3 jurisdiction profiles from a scoring run containing 118 reportable jurisdictions in its 2025 source-year directory; 3 displayed profiles have scores.
- 03
West Virginia has 2 displayed jurisdictions with decreasing reported trajectories versus 1 increasing and 0 stable, comparing weighted 2024 reporting with 2025.
- 04
Charleston, West Virginia has a reporting population of 47,918 residents versus 30,273 in Morgantown, West Virginia, in the 2025 source-year displayed cohort.
Quick answer
In the Safety Atlas 2026 public safety index, the highest-scoring city in West Virginia is Morgantown with an adjusted safety score of 61.8 out of 100, ranked across 3 tracked jurisdictions using 2025 FBI reporting.
Jump to section
West Virginia city safety rankings
Ranked by adjusted Safety Atlas score. The table lists the 3 most populous jurisdictions in this directory; each rank is calculated within this displayed 3-jurisdiction cohort.
| City / Jurisdiction | Cohort Rank | Population | Safety Score | Overall Trend | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgantown | #1 of 3 | 30,273 | 61.8 | ↓ Decreasing | View Report → |
| Charleston | #2 of 3 | 47,918 | 37.76 | ↑ Increasing | View Report → |
| Huntington | #3 of 3 | 46,189 | 33.06 | ↓ Decreasing | View Report → |
* Trajectory trends compare weighted year-over-year reporting from 2024 to 2025. Scores describe relative reported rates, not personal risk. Cohort rank covers only the 3 jurisdictions listed above.
Data, definitions and reuse
Violent: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault. Property: burglary, larceny, vehicle theft, arson. Monthly counts are summed over the agencies that reported each month, and agency coverage changes over time.
| Month | Violent | Property | Agencies reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 441 | 2218 | 123 |
| Feb | 531 | 2027 | 123 |
| Mar | 626 | 2430 | 121 |
| Apr | 467 | 1924 | 112 |
| May | 642 | 2404 | 118 |
| Jun | 565 | 2464 | 114 |
| Jul | 620 | 2366 | 117 |
| Aug | 607 | 2628 | 113 |
| Sep | 530 | 2344 | 113 |
| Oct | 552 | 2326 | 114 |
| Nov | 411 | 1816 | 103 |
| Dec | 413 | 2018 | 104 |
Reuse under CC BY 4.0; indicate changes. Embed code:
<img src="https://www.safetyatlas.us/img/charts/west-virginia-crime-trend-2025.webp" alt="Chart of West Virginia crime statistics: West Virginia agencies reported 6,405 violent offenses in 2025. Between 103 to 123 agencies reported each month, so the total is not compared with 2024. Shows violent and property offenses per month." width="1200" height="675" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.safetyatlas.us/safety/wv/">Safety Atlas, West Virginia</a>. <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</p>
West Virginia in 7 numbers
- Every major offense fell in 2025. Homicide -38% (178 to 111), burglary -25%, motor vehicle theft -18%, robbery -16%, larceny-theft -11%, aggravated assault -7%.
- Almost half of all reports are property crime. 29,220 of 77,238 reports (37.8%); larceny-theft alone is 21,023 (27.2%).
- Clearances skew toward violent crime. 52% of homicides cleared vs 12% of motor vehicle thefts and 16% of burglaries (2025, reports cleared divided by reports received, reporting agencies only).
- Homicides fell by nearly a fifth. 111 reports in 2025 vs 178 in 2024 (-38%) across reporting agencies.
- The biggest volume is not violent. Simple assault (16,019) alone outweighs the entire personal-safety total (6,639, 8.6% of reports).
- Watch the monthly shape. Larceny-theft peaked in Aug (2,040) and troughed in Nov (1,429), a 1.4× swing inside a single year.
- These are reporting-agency sums. 96 of 207 agencies reported homicide in December 2025 (vs 121 in January); totals reflect who reported, not a census of crime.
Takeaways are computed from summed FBI CDE reported counts (source year 2025, 207 agencies in file). They describe reported data, not forecasts; check the methodology and coverage notes before reuse.
Every number on this page ships in the West Virginia workbook.
West Virginia monthly trend: reporting-agency sums through December 2025
Annual totals hide timing. The bars below show 2025 reported counts per month summed across reporting agencies for three indicator offenses. Counts only; there is no honest monthly denominator at this grain, so no rates are shown.
Larceny-theft, month by month
↓ Decreasing, 21023 reports vs 23675 in 2024 (down 11% in reported data).
| Month | Count | Agencies | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 1,727 | 63 | Full |
| Feb 2025 | 1,576 | 64 | Full |
| Mar 2025 | 1,846 | 63 | Full |
| Apr 2025 | 1,463 | 60 | Full |
| May 2025 | 1,905 | 61 | Full |
| Jun 2025 | 1,899 | 59 | Full |
| Jul 2025 | 1,837 | 60 | Full |
| Aug 2025 | 2,040 | 56 | Full |
| Sep 2025 | 1,829 | 57 | Full |
| Oct 2025 | 1,880 | 60 | Full |
| Nov 2025 | 1,429 | 54 | Full |
| Dec 2025 | 1,592 | 52 | Full |
Simple assault, month by month
→ Stable, 16019 reports vs 16899 in 2024 (about level in reported data).
| Month | Count | Agencies | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 1,349 | 67 | Full |
| Feb 2025 | 1,201 | 67 | Full |
| Mar 2025 | 1,376 | 65 | Full |
| Apr 2025 | 1,101 | 63 | Full |
| May 2025 | 1,514 | 63 | Full |
| Jun 2025 | 1,543 | 62 | Full |
| Jul 2025 | 1,436 | 63 | Full |
| Aug 2025 | 1,496 | 60 | Full |
| Sep 2025 | 1,401 | 61 | Full |
| Oct 2025 | 1,332 | 63 | Full |
| Nov 2025 | 1,155 | 57 | Full |
| Dec 2025 | 1,115 | 55 | Full |
Drug/Narcotic Violations, month by month
→ Stable, 13015 reports vs 14057 in 2024 (about level in reported data).
| Month | Count | Agencies | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 884 | 61 | Full |
| Feb 2025 | 1,036 | 61 | Full |
| Mar 2025 | 1,300 | 59 | Full |
| Apr 2025 | 1,091 | 57 | Full |
| May 2025 | 1,202 | 57 | Full |
| Jun 2025 | 1,150 | 56 | Full |
| Jul 2025 | 1,026 | 56 | Full |
| Aug 2025 | 1,235 | 53 | Full |
| Sep 2025 | 1,116 | 54 | Full |
| Oct 2025 | 1,277 | 55 | Full |
| Nov 2025 | 883 | 50 | Full |
| Dec 2025 | 815 | 48 | Full |
Clearances: what got cleared in 2025
52% of homicides cleared vs 12% of motor vehicle thefts, clearance follows violent crime, not volume.
| Offense | Reported | Cleared | Clearance rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 111 | 58 | 52.3% |
| Aggravated Assault | 4,774 | 2,111 | 44.2% |
| Robbery | 266 | 80 | 30.1% |
| Burglary | 3,897 | 636 | 16.3% |
| Larceny-theft | 21,023 | 4,849 | 23.1% |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 1,847 | 221 | 12.0% |
Clearances ÷ reports received; clearances may concern earlier reports, so this is not a solve rate.
Monthly counts summed over reporting agencies, FBI CDE source year 2025. A hyphen (-) means not reported, not zero. Totals reflect who reported, not a census of crime.
Downloads: West Virginia monthly series (JSON) · same data (CSV) · build manifest
West Virginia city reports
- Morgantown safety report: #1 of 3, population 30,273, score 61.8, and the displayed trajectory is ↓ Decreasing.
- Charleston safety report: #2 of 3, population 47,918, score 37.76, and the displayed trajectory is ↑ Increasing.
- Huntington safety report: #3 of 3, population 46,189, score 33.06, and the displayed trajectory is ↓ Decreasing.
Reading the comparison
Scores compare reported rates; they do not predict personal risk. Methodology · Coverage
Monthly count comparisons
West Virginia reporting agencies recorded 2,040 larceny-theft offenses in Aug 2025 versus 1,429 in Nov 2025, a difference of 611 reports; 56 agencies reported in the peak-count month compared with 54 in the minimum-count month, within 12 displayed months totaling 21,023 reports (FBI CDE reporting-agency sums, not statewide population rates).
West Virginia reporting agencies recorded 1,543 simple assault offenses in Jun 2025 versus 1,101 in Apr 2025, a difference of 442 reports; 62 agencies reported in the peak-count month compared with 63 in the minimum-count month, within 12 displayed months totaling 16,019 reports (FBI CDE reporting-agency sums, not statewide population rates).
West Virginia reporting agencies recorded 1,300 drug/narcotic violations offenses in Mar 2025 versus 815 in Dec 2025, a difference of 485 reports; 59 agencies reported in the peak-count month compared with 48 in the minimum-count month, within 12 displayed months totaling 13,015 reports (FBI CDE reporting-agency sums, not statewide population rates).
West Virginia reporting agencies recorded 58 cleared homicide offenses against 111 reports received in 2025 (52.3%), compared with 221 cleared motor vehicle theft offenses against 1,847 reports (12.0%), a 40.3-percentage-point difference between the displayed clearance ratios; clearances can concern earlier reports.
Morgantown, West Virginia records 61.8 adjusted score points out of 100 in the 2025 source-year directory, 17.59 points above the displayed scored-cohort mean of 44.21; its reporting population of 30,273 residents accounts for 24.3% of the 124,380 residents summed across the 3 displayed jurisdiction populations.
Huntington, West Virginia records 33.06 adjusted score points out of 100 in the 2025 source-year directory, 11.15 points below the displayed scored-cohort mean of 44.21; its reporting population of 46,189 residents accounts for 37.1% of the 124,380 residents summed across the 3 displayed jurisdiction populations.
Charleston, West Virginia records 37.76 adjusted score points out of 100 in the 2025 source-year directory, 6.45 points below the displayed scored-cohort mean of 44.21; its reporting population of 47,918 residents accounts for 38.5% of the 124,380 residents summed across the 3 displayed jurisdiction populations.
West Virginia reporting-agency sums contain 21,023 larceny-theft reports in 2025 versus 23,675 in 2024, 2,652 reports (11.2%) fewer across the two complete twelve-month source series; monthly reporting participation ranges from 52 to 67 agencies across those years, so the count change includes differences in participation and is not a population-adjusted rate change.
West Virginia reporting-agency sums contain 16,019 simple assault reports in 2025 versus 16,899 in 2024, 880 reports (5.2%) fewer across the two complete twelve-month source series; monthly reporting participation ranges from 55 to 71 agencies across those years, so the count change includes differences in participation and is not a population-adjusted rate change.
West Virginia reporting-agency sums contain 6,894 vandalism reports in 2025 versus 7,822 in 2024, 928 reports (11.9%) fewer across the two complete twelve-month source series; monthly reporting participation ranges from 54 to 72 agencies across those years, so the count change includes differences in participation and is not a population-adjusted rate change.
How to read the West Virginia directory
The scoring run contains 118 reportable jurisdictions in West Virginia. This public directory displays the 3 most populous jurisdictions in the current scored comparison set, and each displayed city's rank is calculated within this displayed 3-jurisdiction cohort.
Within the displayed cohort, Morgantown has the highest adjusted score at 61.8, and Huntington has the lowest at 33.06. The public-cohort range is 28.74 points; use the offense-rate tables on each city profile to understand that spread.
Current trajectories in the displayed cohort: 2 decreasing, 0 stable, and 1 increasing. Trends compare weighted 2024 and 2025 reporting and do not forecast future incidents.
Review the scoring method, coverage report, and buyer checklist before citing or purchasing data.
Explore Safety Resources
What Is the Safest State?
Compare population-adjusted crime scores across all 50 states.
Our Methodology
Learn how we calculate safety indexes using log-relief normalization.
Safety Atlas Datasets
Get API access or download offline data workbooks for all states.