Photo: Jared Kofsky/Placenj.com · CC BY-SA 4.0The crimes the grade counts fell 43% per resident in Carteret from 2023 to 2025
Its police logs show 2.4 violent crimes and 11.9 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, while in the rest of New Jersey the numbers are 2.1 and 13.8. In sum, crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025 put Carteret at C+ (#256 of 342 graded towns in New Jersey): close to the middle of U.S. towns.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of NJ” is every other New Jersey 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 Carteret
Among New Jersey towns, lower
New Jersey’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Carteret’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 25% of the 342 New Jersey towns we grade, against 43% 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 Carteret’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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical. Its violent rate (2.4) 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 (11.9) 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 | Carteret property | Rest of New Jersey property | Carteret violent | Rest of New Jersey violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 15.3 | 14.7 | 2.2 | 2.2 |
| 2024 | 12.6 | 14.0 | 3.1 | 2.2 |
| 2025 | 8.0 | 12.6 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
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, 2023–2025, against the rest of New Jersey.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Carteret | Rest of New Jersey | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Carteret’s police reported 189 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 2.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.1 in the rest of New Jersey and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Carteret 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 2 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
262 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.
53 violent and 209 property, as reported to the FBI by Carteret’s police.
Four people died in crashes on Carteret’s roads in 2019–2023
Carteret had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died. Most of these deaths (3 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 New Jersey towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (5.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Carteret’s size would see about 7 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Carteret’s own rate (3.1) 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.
Carteret and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carteret | C+ | 2.4 | 11.9 |
| Woodbridge Township | — | — | — |
| Linden | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Woodbridge Township and Linden reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2025 but not 2024.
New Jersey towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carteret | C+ | 2.4 | 11.9 |
| Raritan Township | A+ | 0.2 | 1.5 |
| Barnegat Township | A | 0.9 | 2.2 |
| Scotch Plains Township | A− | 0.3 | 5.7 |
| Medford Township | A− | 0.8 | 6.8 |
| Lodi | B− | 1.6 | 13.1 |
The five graded New Jersey towns closest to Carteret’s population (25,781), 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 Carteret. 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 Carteret’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (26,151 in 2025); our figure for Carteret is 25,781 (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 Carteret
Is Carteret, NJ safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Carteret reports more crime per resident than 57% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #256 of 342 in New Jersey. Its police reported 2.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.1 in the rest of New Jersey and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Carteret?
2.4 violent and 11.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of New Jersey reports 2.1 and 13.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Carteret in 2025?
Carteret’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 Carteret?
Carteret’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Carteret”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Carteret.
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.