Crime Rate in West Virginia (2025)
The statewide FBI-based Crime Index for West Virginia, built from FBI Crime Data Explorer reports for 2025. No individual city in West Virginia met the population threshold for FBI city-level reporting this year.
Crime Index
Statewide aggregate only: no city in West Virginia met the FBI's city-level reporting bar for 2025, so there is no city breakdown below. The index above is built from West Virginia's statewide FBI totals — see the methodology.
Crime trend in West Virginia
Reported crime by offense
Statewide rates per 100,000 residents vs the US average.
Each bar is scaled to the US average for that offense — the dashed line marks 1×. Bars past it run above the national norm; hover a row for detail.
Violent crime
- West Virginia
- 3.8 /100k · 67 total
- US average
- 4.1 /100k
- West Virginia
- 51.9 /100k · 916 total
- US average
- 35.2 /100k
- West Virginia
- 8.3 /100k · 147 total
- US average
- 47.9 /100k
- West Virginia
- 164 /100k · 2,892 total
- US average
- 228 /100k
Property crime
- West Virginia
- 133 /100k · 2,352 total
- US average
- 187 /100k
- West Virginia
- 739 /100k · 13,044 total
- US average
- 1,099 /100k
- West Virginia
- 62.1 /100k · 1,097 total
- US average
- 192 /100k
- West Virginia
- 7.1 /100k · 126 total
- US average
- 9.4 /100k
How West Virginia compares
West Virginia against the US average for 2025.
| Metric | West Virginia | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Crime Index (higher = safer) | 81B | 73C |
| Violent crime /100k | 228 | 315 |
| Property crime /100k | 941 | 1,487 |
| Homicide /100k | 3.8 | 4.1 |
| Total reported /100k | 1,169 | 1,802 |
Grade shown per index band (88–100 = A … 0–29 = F). Rates are reported offenses per 100,000 residents.
No city-level FBI data available
No city with a population of 50,000 or more in West Virginia reported crime data to the FBI for 2025. This does not mean West Virginia has no crime — it means no city there cleared both the population size and FBI agency-reporting bar we require before publishing a city-level score. The statewide figure above is the most granular data currently available.
Protecting yourself in West Virginia
Worried about the numbers above? Compare local providers, estimate costs, and explore the right kind of coverage.
Security guides for West Virginia
West Virginia Security Guard & Company License: Requirements & How to Verify (2026)
Hiring security in West Virginia? Here's who regulates it, what a company and its guards must be licensed to hold, how armed guards are permitted, and how to verify a license yourself in minutes.
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How Much Does a Security Guard Cost? (2026 US Pricing Guide)
Unarmed guards typically run $20–$35 an hour and armed guards $35–$75 — but the number on your quote is built from local wages, insurance, and coverage hours, and it varies by 50% across states. Here's how security pricing actually works in 2026, state by state, and how to avoid overpaying.
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How to Hire a Security Guard Company: A Step-by-Step Guide (2026)
Hiring security is easy to get wrong — the cheapest bid is often the riskiest. This step-by-step guide walks you through vetting a licensed company the right way, from license checks and state-by-state training standards to the questions that separate pros from pretenders.
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How to Verify a Security Company's License (State-by-State, 2026)
There is no federal security license in the US — every state runs its own registry, and a legitimate company must be in it. Here's exactly how to check, with a state-by-state table of licensing agencies, credentials, insurance minimums, and official lookups.
Read guideNo area has zero risk
A high Crime Index score means lower reported crime relative to other US cities — it is not a guarantee of safety. Reported crime is not the same as actual crime. Research on the gap between crime that occurs and crime that gets reported to police — often called the "dark figure" of crime — estimates that roughly 40% of violent crime and about a third of property crime go unreported each year. Every index built on official statistics, including this one, necessarily undercounts real crime. That gap is exactly why homicide — the offense with the smallest dark figure — anchors the calculation instead of a more commonly reported but less reliable category like theft.
Scores on this page reflect FBI-reported data for 2025. See the full methodology →