Photo: Dirk · CC BY 2.0Dubuque reports more crime per resident than 75% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Dubuque’s police in 2023–2025, it grades C for safety: #88 of 105 graded towns in Iowa.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of IA” is every other Iowa 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 Dubuque
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 1 Iowa towns on Dubuque’s borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Asbury (A+). Neighbors ↓
A job center
Dubuque has 40,592 jobs based in town for 59,148 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Dubuque’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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its property rate (15.3) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
For every 1,000 residents, about 15 property crimes reported
And about 4 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Dubuque’s police reported 719 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Dubuque | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.7 | 3.6 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 4.3 | 3.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.0 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.0 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Reported crime is steady
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 Iowa.
Show as a table
| Year | Dubuque property | Rest of Iowa property | Dubuque violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 17.9 | 19.2 | 4.7 | 3.6 |
| 2023 | 16.2 | 20.1 | 4.3 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 14.3 | 18.0 | 4.0 | 3.1 |
| 2025 | 15.2 | 15.8 | 4.0 | 2.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
1,128 crimes reported in 2025
235 violent and 893 property, as reported to the FBI by Dubuque’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
13 people died in crashes on Dubuque’s roads in 2019–2023
Dubuque had 11 fatal crashes in five years, in which 13 people died; 3 were pedestrians.
That is 4.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Iowa towns of 25,000–100,000 people (3.8, 16 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.
Dubuque and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Iowa towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubuque | C | 4.1 | 15.3 |
| Urbandale | B+ | 1.1 | 6.1 |
| Ames | B− | 1.4 | 13.8 |
| West Des Moines | C+ | 1.6 | 18.1 |
| Council Bluffs | D | 4.6 | 25.8 |
| Waterloo | D | 5.1 | 23.6 |
The five graded Iowa towns closest to Dubuque’s population (59,148), by grade.
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 Dubuque. 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 Dubuque’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (58,822 in 2025); our figure for Dubuque is 59,148 (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 Dubuque
Is Dubuque, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Dubuque reports more crime per resident than 75% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #88 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 4.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.2 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Dubuque?
4.1 violent and 15.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Iowa reports 3.2 and 17.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Dubuque?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Dubuque in 2025?
Dubuque’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Dubuque safer than Asbury?
Asbury reports less crime per resident than Dubuque: Asbury grades A+ for safety and Dubuque C. Asbury’s police reported 0.6 violent and 1.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Dubuque?
Dubuque’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Dubuque”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Dubuque.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.