Photo: Elisa.rolle · CC BY-SA 4.0Per resident, Buena Vista records less crime than 88% of U.S. towns
On violence it beats 87% of U.S. towns, and on property crime 83%. Annual rates stand at 0.4 violent crime and 4.4 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 5.6 and 31.1 in the rest of Colorado. Graded on crimes Buena Vista’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores A for safety: #4 of 87 graded towns in Colorado.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of CO” is every other Colorado 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’s behind Buena Vista’s 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 | Buena Vista | Rest of Colorado | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.0 | 6.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.0 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.0 | 5.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.3 | 5.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Buena Vista’s police reported 4 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.6 in the rest of Colorado and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Buena Vista 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 fewer than 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 | Buena Vista property | Rest of Colorado property | Buena Vista violent | Rest of Colorado violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 9.7 | 39.2 | 0.0 | 6.2 |
| 2023 | 4.3 | 35.4 | 0.0 | 5.9 |
| 2024 | 3.5 | 31.7 | 1.0 | 5.8 |
| 2025 | 5.3 | 26.1 | 0.3 | 5.0 |
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 Colorado.
18 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.
1 violent and 17 property, as reported to the FBI by Buena Vista’s police.
No one died in a crash on Buena Vista’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for Colorado towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (0.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Buena Vista’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Buena Vista’s own rate (0.0) 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.
Buena Vista and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buena Vista | A | 0.4 | 4.4 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Colorado towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buena Vista | A | 0.4 | 4.4 |
| Bayfield | A | 0.1 | 5.3 |
| Elizabeth | A− | 0.2 | 7.7 |
| Platteville | B | 0.9 | 11.4 |
| Rocky Ford | C | 2.9 | 17.7 |
| Burlington | C | 4.3 | 13.2 |
The five graded Colorado towns closest to Buena Vista’s population (3,248), 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 Buena Vista. 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 Buena Vista’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (3,197 in 2025); our figure for Buena Vista is 3,248 (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 Buena Vista
Is Buena Vista, CO safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Buena Vista reports less crime per resident than 88% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #4 of 87 in Colorado. Its police reported 0.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.6 in the rest of Colorado and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Buena Vista?
0.4 violent and 4.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Colorado reports 5.6 and 31.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Buena Vista?
Buena Vista’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Buena Vista”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Buena Vista.
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.