Photo: OPMaster · CC BY-SA 3.0Property crime per resident is higher in Bowling Green than in 88% of U.S. towns
The crimes the grade counts fell 23% per resident from 2023 to 2025. Violence and property crime split as 2.1 violent crimes and 27.0 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 3.3 and 21.6 in the rest of Kentucky. Its Safety Grade, C− (#103 of 115 graded towns in Kentucky), rests on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025: more crime per resident than 80% of U.S. towns.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of KY” is every other Kentucky 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 Bowling Green
A college town
Bowling Green is home to Western Kentucky University, with 13,432 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 15% 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 ↓
A job center
Bowling Green has 58,106 jobs based in town for 78,505 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Bowling Green’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. Its violent rate (2.1) 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.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Bowling Green property | Rest of Kentucky property | Bowling Green violent | Rest of Kentucky violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 38.2 | 19.1 | 2.8 | 1.8 |
| 2023 | 29.3 | 24.0 | 2.3 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 29.3 | 21.0 | 2.2 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 22.6 | 19.8 | 1.8 | 3.1 |
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 Kentucky.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bowling Green | Rest of Kentucky | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.3 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.2 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bowling Green’s police reported 499 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Kentucky and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bowling Green 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.
1,971 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.
148 violent and 1,823 property, as reported to the FBI by Bowling Green’s police.
34 people died in crashes on Bowling Green’s roads in 2019–2023
Bowling Green had 33 fatal crashes in five years, in which 34 people died; 5 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists. 4 died in crashes on an Interstate.
That is 9.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Kentucky towns of 25,000–100,000 people (7.8, 14 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.
Bowling Green and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowling Green | C− | 2.1 | 27.0 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Kentucky towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowling Green | C− | 2.1 | 27.0 |
| Georgetown | B− | 1.4 | 11.8 |
| Covington | C | 2.9 | 16.4 |
| Richmond | C | 2.3 | 20.0 |
| Owensboro | D | 3.7 | 28.3 |
The five graded Kentucky towns closest to Bowling Green’s population (78,505), 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 Bowling Green. 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 Bowling Green’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (80,821 in 2025); our figure for Bowling Green is 78,505 (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 Bowling Green
Is Bowling Green, KY safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bowling Green reports more crime per resident than 80% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #103 of 115 in Kentucky. Its police reported 2.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Kentucky and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bowling Green?
2.1 violent and 27.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Kentucky reports 3.3 and 21.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Bowling Green in 2025?
Bowling Green’s police reported 2 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 2.5 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Bowling Green?
Bowling Green’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bowling Green”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Bowling Green.
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.