Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Sault Ste. Marie records more violent crime per head than 81% of U.S. towns
All told, Sault Ste. Marie grades C+ for safety (#165 of 266 graded towns in Michigan): more crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Year on year, 3.9 violent crimes and 9.9 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 5.4 and 17.5 in the rest of Michigan.
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 Sault Ste. Marie
A college town
Sault Ste. Marie is home to Lake Superior State University, with 1,564 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 13% 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 Sault Ste. Marie’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Property crime holds Sault Ste. Marie’s grade up; violent crime pulls it down.
Crime in Sault Ste. Marie 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 4 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Sault Ste. Marie | Rest of Michigan | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.7 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.7 | 5.7 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.1 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.9 | 5.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Sault Ste. Marie’s police reported 155 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.4 in the rest of Michigan and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Sault Ste. Marie property | Rest of Michigan property | Sault Ste. Marie violent | Rest of Michigan violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.9 | 18.7 | 1.7 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 10.8 | 19.4 | 3.7 | 5.7 |
| 2024 | 11.0 | 17.4 | 4.1 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 8.0 | 15.6 | 3.9 | 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.
158 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.
52 violent and 106 property, as reported to the FBI by Sault Ste. Marie’s police.
Four people died in crashes on Sault Ste. Marie’s roads in 2019–2023
Sault Ste. Marie had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died; 1 was a pedestrian and 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 Sault Ste. Marie’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sault Ste. Marie’s own rate (6.0) 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.
Sault Ste. Marie and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sault Ste. Marie | C+ | 3.9 | 9.9 |
| Soo Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Soo Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Michigan towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sault Ste. Marie | C+ | 3.9 | 9.9 |
| Rochester | A | 0.3 | 3.3 |
| Bath Township | B+ | 1.4 | 7.1 |
| Ionia | B | 2.5 | 4.7 |
| Melvindale | C | 3.7 | 12.5 |
| Escanaba | C− | 3.7 | 18.8 |
The five graded Michigan towns closest to Sault Ste. Marie’s population (13,083), 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 Sault Ste. Marie. 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 Sault Ste. Marie’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (13,272 in 2025); our figure for Sault Ste. Marie is 13,083 (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 Sault Ste. Marie
Is Sault Ste. Marie, MI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Sault Ste. Marie reports more crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #165 of 266 in Michigan. Its police reported 3.9 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 Sault Ste. Marie?
3.9 violent and 9.9 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 Sault Ste. Marie?
Sault Ste. Marie’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sault Ste. Marie”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Sault Ste. Marie.
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.