Photo: Cityofhoughton1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Per resident, Houghton records less violent crime than 81% of U.S. towns
Its Safety Grade, B+ (#62 of 266 graded towns in Michigan), rests on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025: less crime per resident than 74% of U.S. towns. Add to that, typical years here bring 0.6 violent crime plus 7.9 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents, against 5.4 plus 17.5 in the rest of Michigan. The rate the grade counts held about level from 2023 to 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MI” is every other Michigan 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 Houghton
A college town
Houghton is home to Michigan Technological University, with 6,994 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 60% 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 ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Houghton’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; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Houghton | Rest of Michigan | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.8 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.3 | 5.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.4 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.2 | 5.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Houghton’s police reported 15 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.4 in the rest of Michigan and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Houghton 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 | Houghton property | Rest of Michigan property | Houghton violent | Rest of Michigan violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.1 | 18.7 | 0.8 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 7.6 | 19.4 | 1.3 | 5.7 |
| 2024 | 7.6 | 17.4 | 0.4 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 8.4 | 15.6 | 0.2 | 5.1 |
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 Michigan.
74 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 72 property, as reported to the FBI by Houghton’s police.
One person died in crashes on Houghton’s roads in 2019–2023
Houghton had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died; 1 was a cyclist.
That is about what is typical for Michigan towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Houghton’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Houghton’s own rate (2.4) 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.
Houghton and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houghton | B+ | 0.6 | 7.9 |
| Portage Township | — | — | — |
| Stanton Township | — | — | — |
| Adams Township | — | — | — |
| Franklin Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Portage Township, Stanton Township, Adams Township and Franklin Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Michigan towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houghton | B+ | 0.6 | 7.9 |
| Spring Arbor Township | A | 0.8 | 2.6 |
| Tecumseh | A− | 0.9 | 3.8 |
| Northfield Township | B+ | 1.1 | 6.5 |
| Center Line | C | 3.5 | 14.1 |
| Big Rapids | C | 4.5 | 13.5 |
The five graded Michigan towns closest to Houghton’s population (8,560), 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 Houghton. 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 Houghton’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (8,588 in 2025); our figure for Houghton is 8,560 (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 Houghton
Is Houghton, MI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Houghton reports less crime per resident than 74% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #62 of 266 in Michigan. Its police reported 0.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.4 in the rest of Michigan and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Houghton?
0.6 violent and 7.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Michigan reports 5.4 and 17.5; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Houghton?
Houghton’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Houghton”. 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 Houghton.
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.