Photo: Cedward Brice · CC BY 2.0Rancho Palos Verdes has less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns
Of the 5 towns on its borders with figures, 2 record less crime per resident. What’s more, that puts it at B+ for safety, judged on crimes Rancho Palos Verdes’ police reported from 2023 to 2025: #34 of 416 graded towns in California. Typical years here bring 1.1 violent crimes plus 8.4 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents, against 4.9 plus 21.4 in the rest of California.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of CA” is every other California city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Rancho Palos Verdes
2 of the 5 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 5 California towns on Rancho Palos Verdes’ borders, 5 have a Safety Grade: Rolling Hills (A), Palos Verdes Estates (B+), Rolling Hills Estates (C+), Lomita (C−), Los Angeles (D). Neighbors ↓
Among California towns, higher
California’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Rancho Palos Verdes’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 92% of the 416 California towns we grade, against 65% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Rancho Palos Verdes’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Rancho Palos Verdes | Rest of California | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.3 | 5.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.2 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.9 | 4.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.2 | 4.3 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Rancho Palos Verdes’ police reported 132 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.9 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Rancho Palos Verdes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Rancho Palos Verdes property | Rest of California property | Rancho Palos Verdes violent | Rest of California violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10.1 | 24.8 | 1.3 | 5.1 |
| 2023 | 8.5 | 25.0 | 1.2 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 8.8 | 20.9 | 0.9 | 4.9 |
| 2025 | 7.9 | 18.5 | 1.2 | 4.3 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of California.
363 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
49 violent and 314 property, as reported to the FBI by Rancho Palos Verdes’ police.
Two people died in crashes on Rancho Palos Verdes’s roads in 2019–2023
Rancho Palos Verdes had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is fewer than is typical for California towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (5.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Rancho Palos Verdes’s size would see about 11 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Rancho Palos Verdes’s own rate (1.0) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Rancho Palos Verdes and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rancho Palos Verdes | B+ | 1.1 | 8.4 |
| Rolling Hills Estates | C+ | 1.5 | 16.6 |
| Rolling Hills | A | 0.8 | 2.0 |
| Los Angeles | D | 7.4 | 21.9 |
| Palos Verdes Estates | B+ | 0.2 | 9.6 |
| Lomita | C− | 4.0 | 17.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
California towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rancho Palos Verdes | B+ | 1.1 | 8.4 |
| Calexico | B | 1.5 | 7.2 |
| La Quinta | C | 1.7 | 20.2 |
| Monrovia | C | 2.4 | 21.9 |
| Stanton | C− | 4.3 | 15.9 |
| Culver City | D− | 7.0 | 57.9 |
The five graded California towns closest to Rancho Palos Verdes’ population (39,654), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Rancho Palos Verdes. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Rancho Palos Verdes’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (39,564 in 2025); our figure for Rancho Palos Verdes is 39,654 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Rancho Palos Verdes
Is Rancho Palos Verdes, CA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Rancho Palos Verdes reports less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #34 of 416 in California. Its police reported 1.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.9 in the rest of California and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Rancho Palos Verdes?
1.1 violent and 8.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of California reports 4.9 and 21.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Rancho Palos Verdes in 2025?
Rancho Palos Verdes’s police reported 1 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 2.5 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Rancho Palos Verdes safer than Rolling Hills Estates?
Rolling Hills Estates reports more crime per resident than Rancho Palos Verdes: Rolling Hills Estates grades C+ for safety and Rancho Palos Verdes B+. Rolling Hills Estates’s police reported 1.5 violent and 16.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Rancho Palos Verdes?
Rancho Palos Verdes’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Rancho Palos Verdes”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.