Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Missoula reports more crime per resident than 93% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Missoula’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #21 of 26 graded towns in Montana.
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 Missoula
Among Montana towns, closer to the middle
Montana’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Missoula’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 19% of the 26 Montana towns we grade, against 7% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Missoula is home to The University of Montana, with 8,924 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 11% 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 ↓
A job center
Missoula has 51,352 jobs based in town for 78,903 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Missoula’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.
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 Montana.
Show as a table
| Year | Missoula property | Rest of Montana property | Missoula violent | Rest of Montana violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 35.4 | 30.2 | 6.3 | 6.0 |
| 2023 | 37.0 | 28.1 | 5.5 | 5.9 |
| 2024 | 36.3 | 23.6 | 6.0 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 28.4 | 21.7 | 5.9 | 5.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 28 property crimes reported
And about 6 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Missoula’s police reported 1,366 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 5.8 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.5 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Missoula | Rest of Montana | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6.3 | 6.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 6.0 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.9 | 5.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
2,712 crimes reported in 2025
466 violent and 2,246 property, as reported to the FBI by Missoula’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
24 people died in crashes on Missoula’s roads in 2019–2023
Missoula had 22 fatal crashes in five years, in which 24 people died; 9 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists. 1 died in crash on an Interstate.
That is 6.3 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for Montana towns of 25,000–100,000 people (5.8, 6 towns).
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.
Missoula and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missoula | D | 5.8 | 33.9 |
| Orchard Homes | — | — | — |
| East Missoula | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Orchard Homes and East Missoula are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own.
Montana towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missoula | D | 5.8 | 33.9 |
| Bozeman | C− | 4.1 | 17.5 |
| Great Falls | D | 5.9 | 39.2 |
| Billings | D | 8.0 | 30.5 |
The five graded Montana towns closest to Missoula’s population (78,903), 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 Missoula. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Missoula’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (79,184 in 2025); our figure for Missoula is 78,903 (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 Missoula
Is Missoula, MT safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Missoula reports more crime per resident than 93% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #21 of 26 in Montana. Its police reported 5.8 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.5 in the rest of Montana and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Missoula?
5.8 violent and 33.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Montana reports 5.5 and 24.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Missoula?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Missoula in 2025?
Missoula’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Missoula?
Missoula’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Missoula”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Missoula.
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.