Photo: Dennis Bratland · CC BY-SA 4.0Urbandale has less crime per resident than 73% of U.S. towns
None of the 3 towns next door with figures records less crime per resident. On top of that, for every 1,000 residents, 1.1 violent crimes and 6.1 incidents of property crime were logged a year; in the rest of Iowa, the figures are 3.3 and 18.1. From 2023 to 2025, crimes Urbandale’s police reported put it at B+ for safety: #22 of 105 graded towns in Iowa. The rate the grade counts dropped 24% from 2023 to 2025.
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 Urbandale
Urbandale reports less crime than every graded town next door
Of the 4 Iowa towns on Urbandale’s borders, 3 have a Safety Grade: Johnston (B+), Clive (B−), Des Moines (D). Grimes has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Urbandale’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; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Urbandale | Rest of Iowa | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.2 | 3.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Urbandale’s police reported 160 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Urbandale property | Rest of Iowa property | Urbandale violent | Rest of Iowa violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6.9 | 19.5 | 1.1 | 3.8 |
| 2023 | 7.0 | 20.3 | 1.3 | 3.7 |
| 2024 | 6.3 | 18.2 | 0.9 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 5.1 | 16.1 | 1.2 | 3.0 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Iowa.
Crime in Urbandale 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.
305 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.
57 violent and 248 property, as reported to the FBI by Urbandale’s police.
Seven people died in crashes on Urbandale’s roads in 2019–2023
Urbandale had 7 fatal crashes in five years, in which seven people died; 3 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist. Most of these deaths (4 of 7) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Iowa towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (3.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Urbandale’s size would see about 9 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Urbandale’s own rate (3.0) 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.
Urbandale and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urbandale | B+ | 1.1 | 6.1 |
| Grimes | — | — | — |
| Johnston | B+ | 0.9 | 7.1 |
| Des Moines | D | 6.8 | 31.0 |
| Clive | B− | 1.8 | 11.4 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Grimes has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Iowa towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urbandale | B+ | 1.1 | 6.1 |
| Marion | B+ | 1.6 | 5.7 |
| Bettendorf | B+ | 1.0 | 8.9 |
| Dubuque | C | 4.1 | 15.3 |
| Council Bluffs | D | 4.6 | 25.8 |
| Waterloo | D | 5.1 | 23.6 |
The five graded Iowa towns closest to Urbandale’s population (48,570), 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 Urbandale. 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 Urbandale’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (48,321 in 2025); our figure for Urbandale is 48,570 (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 Urbandale
Is Urbandale, IA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Urbandale reports less crime per resident than 73% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #22 of 105 in Iowa. Its police reported 1.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Iowa and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Urbandale?
1.1 violent and 6.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Iowa reports 3.3 and 18.1; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Urbandale in 2025?
Urbandale’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 Urbandale safer than Johnston?
Johnston reports more crime per resident than Urbandale: Johnston grades B+ for safety and Urbandale B+. Johnston’s police reported 0.9 violent and 7.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Urbandale?
Urbandale’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Urbandale”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Urbandale.
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.