Photo: Frank Kovalchek from Anchorage, Alaska, USA · CC BY 2.0Bay St. Louis records more property crime per head than four in five U.S. towns
The graded rate fell 31% from 2023 to 2025. On top of that, in a usual year, 1.0 violent crime and 23.7 incidents of property crime are logged per 1,000 inhabitants; in the rest of Mississippi, 2.8 and 21.6. Taking everything together, Bay St. Louis scores C (#24 of 45 graded towns in Mississippi): more crime per resident than 69% of U.S. towns, measured on crimes its police reported between 2023 and 2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MS” is every other Mississippi 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 Bay St. Louis
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 2 Mississippi towns on Bay St. Louis’ borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Waveland (C+). Diamondhead has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Among Mississippi towns, closer to the middle
Mississippi’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Bay St. Louis’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 47% of the 45 Mississippi towns we grade, against 31% 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 Bay St. Louis’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Bay St. Louis’ grade up; property crime pulls it down.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Bay St. Louis property | Rest of Mississippi property | Bay St. Louis violent | Rest of Mississippi violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 34.0 | 25.0 | 1.7 | 3.0 |
| 2023 | 28.3 | 24.5 | 0.8 | 2.5 |
| 2024 | 23.6 | 22.0 | 1.2 | 2.6 |
| 2025 | 19.1 | 19.1 | 1.1 | 3.1 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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 Mississippi.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bay St. Louis | Rest of Mississippi | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.2 | 2.6 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.1 | 3.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bay St. Louis’ police reported 34 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.0 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.8 in the rest of Mississippi and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bay St. Louis 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 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
219 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.
12 violent and 207 property, as reported to the FBI by Bay St. Louis’ police.
Four people died in crashes on Bay St. Louis’s roads in 2019–2023
Bay St. Louis had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died. Most of these deaths (2 of 4) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Mississippi towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (11.6 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bay St. Louis’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bay St. Louis’s own rate (7.9) 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.
Bay St. Louis and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay St. Louis | C | 1.0 | 23.7 |
| Waveland | C+ | 0.5 | 20.7 |
| Diamondhead | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Diamondhead has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Mississippi towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay St. Louis | C | 1.0 | 23.7 |
| Petal | A | 0.7 | 4.1 |
| Flowood | C+ | 1.0 | 21.0 |
| Picayune | C− | 2.9 | 24.7 |
| West Point | C− | 5.8 | 18.1 |
| Cleveland | D | 4.4 | 27.4 |
The five graded Mississippi towns closest to Bay St. Louis’ population (10,634), 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 Bay St. Louis. 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 Bay St. Louis’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (10,822 in 2025); our figure for Bay St. Louis is 10,634 (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 Bay St. Louis
Is Bay St. Louis, MS safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bay St. Louis reports more crime per resident than 69% of U.S. towns, a C Safety Grade and #24 of 45 in Mississippi. Its police reported 1.0 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.8 in the rest of Mississippi and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bay St. Louis?
1.0 violent and 23.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Mississippi reports 2.8 and 21.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is Bay St. Louis safer than Waveland?
Waveland reports less crime per resident than Bay St. Louis: Waveland grades C+ for safety and Bay St. Louis C. Waveland’s police reported 0.5 violent and 20.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Bay St. Louis?
Bay St. Louis’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bay St. Louis”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Bay St. Louis.
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.