Photo: Anonymous · CC BY-SA 4.0Wilmington sees less property crime per resident than 61% of U.S. towns
Violence and property crime split as 2.2 violent crimes and 8.4 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 3.1 and 18.8 in the rest of Illinois. Taking everything together, Wilmington scores B− (#196 of 339 graded towns in Illinois): close to the middle of U.S. towns, measured on crimes its police reported between 2023 and 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 Wilmington
Among Illinois towns, closer to the middle
Illinois’ cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Wilmington’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 42% of the 339 Illinois towns we grade, against 54% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Wilmington has 3,557 jobs based in town for 5,614 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 Wilmington’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Property crime holds Wilmington’s grade up; violent crime pulls it down. Its violent rate (2.2) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Wilmington | Rest of Illinois | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.6 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Wilmington’s police reported 36 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.2 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 Wilmington 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 2 violent crimes, 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 | Wilmington property | Rest of Illinois property | Wilmington violent | Rest of Illinois violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.4 | 20.5 | 1.6 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 8.3 | 19.5 | 2.2 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 7.6 | 19.8 | 2.3 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 9.2 | 17.1 | 2.0 | 2.7 |
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 Illinois.
63 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.
11 violent and 52 property, as reported to the FBI by Wilmington’s police.
Six people died in crashes on Wilmington’s roads in 2019–2023
Wilmington had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which six people died. Most of these deaths (5 of 6) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is more than 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 Wilmington’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Wilmington’s own rate (21.8) 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.
Wilmington and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington | B− | 2.2 | 8.4 |
| Wesley Township | — | — | — |
| Custer Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Wesley Township and Custer Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Illinois towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington | B− | 2.2 | 8.4 |
| Wonder Lake | A | 0.3 | 4.0 |
| Northfield | A− | 0.2 | 8.3 |
| Lake Bluff | B+ | 0.3 | 9.1 |
| Du Quoin | B+ | 1.8 | 5.1 |
| East Alton | C | 3.7 | 13.3 |
The five graded Illinois towns closest to Wilmington’s population (5,614), 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 Wilmington. 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 Wilmington’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,624 in 2025); our figure for Wilmington is 5,614 (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 Wilmington
Is Wilmington, IL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Wilmington reports less crime per resident than 54% of U.S. towns, a B− Safety Grade and #196 of 339 in Illinois. Its police reported 2.2 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 Wilmington?
2.2 violent and 8.4 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 Wilmington?
Wilmington’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Wilmington”. 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 Wilmington.
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.