Kreider Shoe Manufacturing Company · Photo: Niagara · CC BY 3.0Property crime per resident is lower in Elizabethtown than in 74% of U.S. towns
Police counts work out at 1.5 violent crimes and 5.9 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of Pennsylvania they are 2.9 and 17.5. Overall, Elizabethtown grades B+ for safety (#318 of 578 graded towns in Pennsylvania): less crime per resident than 68% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported in 2023–2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of PA” is every other Pennsylvania 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 Elizabethtown
Among Pennsylvania towns, closer to the middle
Pennsylvania’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Elizabethtown’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 45% of the 578 Pennsylvania towns we grade, against 68% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Elizabethtown is home to Elizabethtown College, with 1,923 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 18% 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 ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Elizabethtown’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Elizabethtown | Rest of Pennsylvania | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2.2 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Elizabethtown’s police reported 54 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.9 in the rest of Pennsylvania and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Elizabethtown 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.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Elizabethtown property | Rest of Pennsylvania property | Elizabethtown violent | Rest of Pennsylvania violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5.5 | 19.1 | 2.2 | 3.2 |
| 2024 | 6.4 | 17.4 | 0.8 | 2.9 |
| 2025 | 5.8 | 16.1 | 1.4 | 2.6 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2023–2025, against the rest of Pennsylvania.
87 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.
17 violent and 70 property, as reported to the FBI by Elizabethtown’s police.
Three people died in crashes on Elizabethtown’s roads in 2019–2023
Elizabethtown had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died.
That is about what is typical for Pennsylvania towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (5.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Elizabethtown’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Elizabethtown’s own rate (5.0) 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.
Elizabethtown and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabethtown | B+ | 1.5 | 5.9 |
| Mount Joy Township | — | — | — |
| West Donegal Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Mount Joy Township and West Donegal Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Pennsylvania towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabethtown | B+ | 1.5 | 5.9 |
| Logan Township | B | 0.3 | 12.9 |
| Hanover Township | B− | 2.5 | 8.7 |
| Richland Township | C− | 1.1 | 28.1 |
| Meadville | C− | 4.9 | 13.3 |
| New Kensington | C− | 3.9 | 23.5 |
The five graded Pennsylvania towns closest to Elizabethtown’s population (11,961), 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 Elizabethtown. 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 Elizabethtown’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (12,077 in 2025); our figure for Elizabethtown is 11,961 (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 Elizabethtown
Is Elizabethtown, PA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Elizabethtown reports less crime per resident than 68% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #318 of 578 in Pennsylvania. Its police reported 1.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.9 in the rest of Pennsylvania and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Elizabethtown?
1.5 violent and 5.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Pennsylvania reports 2.9 and 17.5; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Elizabethtown?
Elizabethtown’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Elizabethtown”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Elizabethtown.
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.