Photo: Farragutful · CC BY-SA 4.0What is recorded in Elbow Lake, and why there is no grade
No FBI crime figures of its own exist for Elbow Lake for 2023–2025, so there is nothing to grade. The closest graded town is Fergus Falls, 21 miles away, at C.
The nearest Minnesota towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fergus Falls | C | 21 mi | 2.1 | 23.5 |
| Alexandria | C+ | 30 mi | 2.3 | 11.9 |
| Starbuck | A | 34 mi | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Breckenridge | B− | 35 mi | 3.4 | 4.2 |
| Glenwood | B+ | 36 mi | 1.4 | 5.0 |
| Pelican Rapids | A | 40 mi | 0.9 | 0.5 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Elbow Lake. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Elbow Lake.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
No one died in a crash on Elbow Lake’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for Minnesota towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (4.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Elbow Lake’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Elbow Lake’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.
Elbow Lake and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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.
- A county agency covers a wide area. Its totals mix many communities, so they say little about any one of them.
- 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 Elbow Lake
Is Elbow Lake, MN safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Elbow Lake. Elbow Lake has no FBI crime figures of its own for 2023–2025, so there is nothing to grade it on. The nearest Minnesota towns with a grade are Fergus Falls (C, 21 mi), Alexandria (C+, 30 mi), Starbuck (A, 34 mi).
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 Elbow Lake.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 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.