Dent County Courthouse · Photo: Kbh3rd · CC BY 4.0Reported crime per resident in Salem fell 60% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Salem grades C for safety (#97 of 172 graded towns in Missouri): more crime per resident than 70% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MO” is every other Missouri 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 Salem
Among Missouri towns, closer to the middle
Missouri’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Salem’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 44% of the 172 Missouri towns we grade, against 30% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
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 Salem’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 (2.7) 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 is falling
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 Missouri.
Show as a table
| Year | Salem property | Rest of Missouri property | Salem violent | Rest of Missouri violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 21.4 | 31.8 | 3.3 | 6.4 |
| 2023 | 26.4 | 28.8 | 3.9 | 5.9 |
| 2024 | 16.9 | 27.0 | 1.9 | 6.0 |
| 2025 | 9.7 | 22.9 | 2.3 | 5.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Violent crime, by year and by type
Salem’s police reported 38 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Salem | Rest of Missouri | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3.3 | 6.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.9 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.9 | 6.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.3 | 5.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 10 property crimes reported
And about 2 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
57 crimes reported in 2025
11 violent and 46 property, as reported to the FBI by Salem’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
One person died in crashes on Salem’s roads in 2019–2023
Salem had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
That is about what is typical for Missouri towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (7.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Salem’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Salem’s own rate (4.3) 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.
Salem and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salem | C | 2.7 | 17.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Missouri towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salem | C | 2.7 | 17.6 |
| Crystal City | A− | 1.1 | 3.8 |
| Rock Hill | B | 2.2 | 7.5 |
| Mountain Grove | B− | 2.0 | 12.4 |
| Scott City | C+ | 3.0 | 9.6 |
| Charleston | D | 8.5 | 17.9 |
The five graded Missouri towns closest to Salem’s population (4,674), by grade.
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 Salem. 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 Salem’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,748 in 2025); our figure for Salem is 4,674 (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 Salem
Is Salem, MO safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Salem reports more crime per resident than 70% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #97 of 172 in Missouri. Its police reported 2.7 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.8 in the rest of Missouri and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Salem?
2.7 violent and 17.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Missouri reports 5.8 and 26.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Salem?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Who polices Salem?
Salem’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Salem”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Salem.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.