Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 2.5Valdosta has more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns
Violent crime here is higher than in 88% of U.S. towns; property crime, higher than in 96%. Add to that, its Safety Grade is D, on crimes Valdosta’s police reported from 2023 to 2025: #111 of 132 graded towns in Georgia. Year on year, 5.0 violent crimes and 38.9 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 3.9 and 21.2 in the rest of Georgia.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of GA” is every other Georgia 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 Valdosta
A college town
Valdosta is home to Valdosta State University, with 5,909 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 14% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Valdosta’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 higher than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Crime in Valdosta 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 5 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Valdosta | Rest of Georgia | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 5.6 | 3.7 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.8 | 3.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Valdosta’s police reported 822 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.0 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.9 in the rest of Georgia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Valdosta property | Rest of Georgia property | Valdosta violent | Rest of Georgia violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 22.9 | 24.7 | 3.5 | 5.0 |
| 2023 | 38.1 | 25.2 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| 2024 | 40.8 | 21.2 | 5.6 | 3.7 |
| 2025 | 37.8 | 17.7 | 4.8 | 3.5 |
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 Georgia.
2,374 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.
265 violent and 2,109 property, as reported to the FBI by Valdosta’s police.
32 people died in crashes on Valdosta’s roads in 2019–2023
Valdosta had 31 fatal crashes in five years, in which 32 people died; 8 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist. 3 died in crashes on an Interstate.
That is 11.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Georgia towns of 25,000–100,000 people (7.9, 40 towns).
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.
Valdosta and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Bemiss is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
Georgia towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valdosta | D | 5.0 | 38.9 |
| Smyrna | C+ | 2.5 | 13.0 |
| Marietta | C | 3.2 | 18.5 |
| Brookhaven | C− | 3.1 | 22.4 |
| Gainesville | C− | 4.2 | 21.6 |
| Dunwoody | C− | 2.0 | 32.3 |
The five graded Georgia towns closest to Valdosta’s population (56,186), 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 Valdosta. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Valdosta’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (55,729 in 2025); our figure for Valdosta is 56,186 (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 Valdosta
Is Valdosta, GA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Valdosta reports more crime per resident than 94% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #111 of 132 in Georgia. Its police reported 5.0 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.9 in the rest of Georgia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Valdosta?
5.0 violent and 38.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Georgia reports 3.9 and 21.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Valdosta in 2025?
Valdosta’s police reported 4 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 7.2 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Valdosta?
Valdosta’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Valdosta”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Valdosta.
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.