Photo: Nils Huenerfuerst · CC BY 4.0The crimes the grade counts fell 53% per resident in Hillsboro from 2023 to 2025
Violence and property crime split as 1.4 violent crimes and 6.8 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 3.1 and 18.8 in the rest of Illinois. Across all the graded crimes, Hillsboro lands on B+ (#158 of 339 graded towns in Illinois): less crime per resident than 67% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of IL” is every other Illinois 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 Hillsboro
Among Illinois towns, closer to the middle
Illinois’ cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Hillsboro’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 53% of the 339 Illinois towns we grade, against 67% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
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 Hillsboro’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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Hillsboro property | Rest of Illinois property | Hillsboro violent | Rest of Illinois violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.4 | 20.5 | 1.0 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 10.3 | 19.5 | 1.2 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 5.7 | 19.8 | 2.1 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 4.5 | 17.1 | 1.0 | 2.7 |
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 Illinois.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Hillsboro | Rest of Illinois | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.0 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.2 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Hillsboro’s police reported 25 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Hillsboro 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.
34 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.
6 violent and 28 property, as reported to the FBI by Hillsboro’s police.
No one died in a crash on Hillsboro’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for Illinois towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Hillsboro’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Hillsboro’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.
Hillsboro and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hillsboro | B+ | 1.4 | 6.8 |
| East Fork Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. East Fork Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Illinois towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hillsboro | B+ | 1.4 | 6.8 |
| Braidwood | A− | 0.9 | 4.5 |
| Lakemoor | B | 1.2 | 11.1 |
| Chillicothe | C+ | 2.0 | 14.1 |
| Pontoon Beach | C | 3.0 | 14.7 |
| Countryside | C | 1.4 | 23.4 |
The five graded Illinois towns closest to Hillsboro’s population (6,184), 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 Hillsboro. 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 Hillsboro’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (6,287 in 2025); our figure for Hillsboro is 6,184 (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 Hillsboro
Is Hillsboro, IL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Hillsboro reports less crime per resident than 67% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #158 of 339 in Illinois. Its police reported 1.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Hillsboro?
1.4 violent and 6.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Illinois reports 3.1 and 18.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Hillsboro?
Hillsboro’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Hillsboro”. 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 Hillsboro.
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.