Photo: Corvokarasu at English Wikipedia · Public domainMore crimes per resident are recorded in Emporia than in 95% of U.S. towns
Violent crime here is higher than in 97% of U.S. towns; property crime, higher than in 91%. What’s more, the grade is D, built on crimes Emporia’s police reported from 2023 to 2025: #81 of 84 graded towns in Virginia. For every 1,000 residents, 8.9 violent crimes and 30.2 incidents of property crime were logged a year; in the rest of Virginia, the figures are 3.3 and 22.6.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of VA” is every other Virginia 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 Emporia
A job center
Emporia has 4,004 jobs based in town for 5,447 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Emporia’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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Emporia | Rest of Virginia | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.4 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.7 | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 10.7 | 3.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 9.2 | 3.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Emporia’s police reported 143 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 8.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Virginia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Emporia 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 9 violent crimes, 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 | Emporia property | Rest of Virginia property | Emporia violent | Rest of Virginia violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 35.3 | 25.2 | 4.4 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 32.0 | 24.4 | 6.7 | 3.5 |
| 2024 | 28.9 | 23.2 | 10.7 | 3.3 |
| 2025 | 29.7 | 20.2 | 9.2 | 3.2 |
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, 2022–2025, against the rest of Virginia.
208 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.
49 violent and 159 property, as reported to the FBI by Emporia’s police.
Two people died in crashes on Emporia’s roads in 2019–2023
Emporia had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died. Most of these deaths (1 of 2) 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 Virginia towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Emporia’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Emporia’s own rate (7.2) 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.
Emporia and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emporia | D | 8.9 | 30.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Virginia towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emporia | D | 8.9 | 30.2 |
| Big Stone Gap | B− | 1.3 | 14.1 |
| Covington | B− | 1.9 | 12.5 |
| Orange | C | 3.1 | 13.9 |
| Marion | C− | 3.3 | 19.6 |
| Richlands | C− | 5.1 | 13.5 |
The five graded Virginia towns closest to Emporia’s population (5,447), 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 Emporia. 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 Emporia’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (5,345 in 2025); our figure for Emporia is 5,447 (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 Emporia
Is Emporia, VA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Emporia reports more crime per resident than 95% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #81 of 84 in Virginia. Its police reported 8.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.3 in the rest of Virginia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Emporia?
8.9 violent and 30.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Virginia reports 3.3 and 22.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Emporia?
Emporia’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Emporia”. 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 Emporia.
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.