Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Per resident, Houlton records less violent crime than 85% of U.S. towns
Its letter overall is B− (#60 of 78 graded towns in Maine): close to the middle of U.S. towns, from crimes its police reported through 2023 to 2025. Year on year, 0.5 violent crime and 15.0 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 1.2 and 13.6 in the rest of Maine.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of ME” is every other Maine 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 Houlton
Among Maine towns, closer to the middle
Maine’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Houlton’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 23% of the 78 Maine towns we grade, against 54% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Houlton’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Houlton’s grade up; property crime pulls it down. Its property rate (15.0) 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Houlton | Rest of Maine | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Houlton’s police reported 9 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.2 in the rest of Maine and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Houlton 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 fewer than 1 violent crime, 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 | Houlton property | Rest of Maine property | Houlton violent | Rest of Maine violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 18.3 | 15.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 |
| 2023 | 13.3 | 14.1 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 15.1 | 14.6 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| 2025 | 16.7 | 12.0 | 0.3 | 1.1 |
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 Maine.
102 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.
2 violent and 100 property, as reported to the FBI by Houlton’s police.
No one died in a crash on Houlton’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for Maine towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Houlton’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Houlton’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.
Houlton and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Hodgdon has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Maine towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houlton | B− | 0.5 | 15.0 |
| Oakland | A− | 0.4 | 6.9 |
| Winthrop | B+ | 0.3 | 10.7 |
| Gardiner | B | 1.0 | 10.0 |
| Fairfield | B− | 1.2 | 15.7 |
| Rumford | C+ | 1.6 | 16.5 |
The five graded Maine towns closest to Houlton’s population (6,056), 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 Houlton. 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 Houlton’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,994 in 2025); our figure for Houlton is 6,056 (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 Houlton
Is Houlton, ME safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Houlton reports less crime per resident than 54% of U.S. towns, a B− Safety Grade and #60 of 78 in Maine. Its police reported 0.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.2 in the rest of Maine and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Houlton?
0.5 violent and 15.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Maine reports 1.2 and 13.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Houlton?
Houlton’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Houlton”. 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 Houlton.
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.