Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Beckley sees more crime per resident than almost any other U.S. town
It has more violent crime than 93% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 100%. Add to that, the grade is D−, built on crimes Beckley’s police reported from 2023 to 2025. Its police logs show 6.5 violent crimes and 73.4 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, while in the rest of West Virginia the numbers are 3.9 and 22.4.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of WV” is every other West 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 Beckley
A job center
Beckley has 17,417 jobs based in town for 16,373 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 Beckley’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 Beckley 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 7 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 | Beckley | Rest of West Virginia | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.4 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 6.2 | 4.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 6.0 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 7.2 | 3.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Beckley’s police reported 318 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 6.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.9 in the rest of West Virginia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Beckley property | Rest of West Virginia property | Beckley violent | Rest of West Virginia violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 77.0 | 25.6 | 7.4 | 5.0 |
| 2023 | 70.4 | 23.7 | 6.2 | 4.6 |
| 2024 | 79.1 | 22.2 | 6.0 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 70.8 | 21.4 | 7.2 | 3.4 |
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 West Virginia.
1,275 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.
117 violent and 1,158 property, as reported to the FBI by Beckley’s police.
Eight people died in crashes on Beckley’s roads in 2019–2023
Beckley had 8 fatal crashes in five years, in which eight people died; 1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist.
That is about what is typical for West Virginia towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (10.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Beckley’s size would see about 9 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Beckley’s own rate (9.5) 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.
Beckley and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Mabscott has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. MacArthur is an unincorporated community (a census-designated place) with no police department of its own.
West Virginia towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beckley | D− | 6.5 | 73.4 |
| Fairmont | C− | 5.1 | 12.7 |
| Clarksburg | C− | 3.3 | 25.1 |
| Vienna | C− | 1.4 | 34.7 |
| Wheeling | D | 9.3 | 18.8 |
| South Charleston | D− | 5.0 | 51.8 |
The five graded West Virginia towns closest to Beckley’s population (16,373), 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 Beckley. 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 Beckley’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (16,345 in 2025); our figure for Beckley is 16,373 (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 Beckley
Is Beckley, WV safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Beckley reports more crime per resident than 99% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade. Its police reported 6.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.9 in the rest of West Virginia and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Beckley?
6.5 violent and 73.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of West Virginia reports 3.9 and 22.4; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Beckley?
Beckley’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Beckley”. 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 Beckley.
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.