Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in New Kensington than in 83% of U.S. towns
Next door, 2 of 3 towns with figures record less crime per resident. Graded on crimes New Kensington’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores C− for safety: #539 of 578 graded towns in Pennsylvania. Behind the grade sit 3.9 violent crimes and 23.5 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people a year, where the comparison is 2.9 and 17.5 in the rest of Pennsylvania.
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 New Kensington
2 of the 3 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 5 Pennsylvania towns on New Kensington’s borders, 3 have a Safety Grade: Lower Burrell (A), Tarentum (B), Arnold (D). East Deer Township and Springdale Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind New Kensington’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.
Crime in New Kensington 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 4 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | New Kensington | Rest of Pennsylvania | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.8 | 2.6 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
New Kensington’s police reported 139 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.9 in the rest of Pennsylvania and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | New Kensington property | Rest of Pennsylvania property | New Kensington violent | Rest of Pennsylvania violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 21.2 | 19.1 | 3.4 | 3.2 |
| 2024 | 24.0 | 17.3 | 4.6 | 2.9 |
| 2025 | 25.4 | 16.0 | 3.8 | 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.
345 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.
45 violent and 300 property, as reported to the FBI by New Kensington’s police.
Four people died in crashes on New Kensington’s roads in 2019–2023
New Kensington had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four 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 New Kensington’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so New Kensington’s own rate (6.7) 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.
New Kensington and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Kensington | C− | 3.9 | 23.5 |
| Lower Burrell | A | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| Arnold | D | 8.7 | 14.1 |
| Tarentum | B | 1.9 | 8.5 |
| East Deer Township | — | — | — |
| Springdale Township | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. East Deer Township and Springdale Township have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Pennsylvania towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Kensington | C− | 3.9 | 23.5 |
| Elizabethtown | B+ | 1.5 | 5.9 |
| Sandy Township | B | 1.3 | 8.1 |
| Hanover Township | B− | 2.5 | 8.7 |
| Rostraver Township | C | 0.6 | 25.6 |
| Richland Township | C− | 1.1 | 28.1 |
The five graded Pennsylvania towns closest to New Kensington’s population (11,759), 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 New Kensington. 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 New Kensington’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (11,810 in 2025); our figure for New Kensington is 11,759 (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 New Kensington
Is New Kensington, PA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, New Kensington reports more crime per resident than 83% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #539 of 578 in Pennsylvania. Its police reported 3.9 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 New Kensington?
3.9 violent and 23.5 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.
Is New Kensington safer than Lower Burrell?
Lower Burrell reports less crime per resident than New Kensington: Lower Burrell grades A for safety and New Kensington C−. Lower Burrell’s police reported 0.8 violent and 3.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices New Kensington?
New Kensington’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “New Kensington”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in New Kensington.
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.