Photo: Mitchell O'Brien · CC BY-SA 4.0Reported crime per resident in Columbia Falls fell 46% from 2023 to 2025
Overall, Columbia Falls grades C+ for safety (#7 of 26 graded towns in Montana): more crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Out of every 1,000 residents, 2.7 violent crimes and 14.9 incidents of property crime are reported annually, against 5.6 and 26.0 in the rest of Montana. Even so, it has more violent crime than 69% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 64%.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MT” is every other Montana 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 Columbia Falls
Among Montana towns, closer to the middle
Montana’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Columbia Falls’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 73% of the 26 Montana towns we grade, against 35% 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 Columbia Falls’ 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; property 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. Its property rate (14.9) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Columbia Falls property | Rest of Montana property | Columbia Falls violent | Rest of Montana violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 20.9 | 31.1 | 2.6 | 6.1 |
| 2023 | 18.1 | 29.6 | 4.0 | 5.8 |
| 2024 | 15.9 | 25.5 | 2.7 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 10.5 | 22.8 | 1.4 | 5.5 |
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 Montana.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Columbia Falls | Rest of Montana | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.6 | 6.1 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.7 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Columbia Falls’ police reported 47 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.6 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Columbia Falls 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.
69 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.
8 violent and 61 property, as reported to the FBI by Columbia Falls’ police.
One person died in crashes on Columbia Falls’s roads in 2019–2023
Columbia Falls had 1 fatal crash in five years, in which one person died.
That is about what is typical for Montana towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Columbia Falls’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Columbia Falls’s own rate (3.6) 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.
Columbia Falls and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia Falls | C+ | 2.7 | 14.9 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Montana towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia Falls | C+ | 2.7 | 14.9 |
| Sidney | C | 5.5 | 6.7 |
| Glendive | C | 5.2 | 7.8 |
| Lewistown | C− | 6.1 | 9.7 |
| Hamilton | D | 4.9 | 23.7 |
| Polson | D− | 9.7 | 31.5 |
The five graded Montana towns closest to Columbia Falls’ population (5,753), 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 Columbia Falls. 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 Columbia Falls’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,796 in 2025); our figure for Columbia Falls is 5,753 (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 Columbia Falls
Is Columbia Falls, MT safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Columbia Falls reports more crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #7 of 26 in Montana. Its police reported 2.7 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.6 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Columbia Falls?
2.7 violent and 14.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Montana reports 5.6 and 26.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Columbia Falls?
Columbia Falls’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Columbia Falls”. 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 Columbia Falls.
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.