Crime & Safety in Fort Collins
Fort Collins's crime data carries a genuine methodological tension, not just a scale disagreement: CrimeGrade.org's neighborhood-level analysis rates 97.9% of the city's 193 mapped neighborhoods 'Very Safe (A),' while NeighborhoodScout cites a crime rate of 27 per 1,000 residents and describes Fort Collins as having one of the highest crime rates in America when compared against all U.S. communities of every size -- even as it separately notes more than 81% of Colorado communities specifically have a lower crime rate than Fort Collins.
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Learn moreCrimeGrade.org: A Real, Neighborhood-Level 'Very Safe' Assessment
CrimeGrade.org cites an average crime score of 0.039 across Fort Collins's 193 mapped neighborhoods, placing the city in its 'Very Safe (A)' category, with 97.9% of neighborhoods receiving a Grade A for low crime and high safety. This is a real, granular, neighborhood-by-neighborhood assessment, not a citywide average alone.
NeighborhoodScout: A Real, Differently Framed Concern
NeighborhoodScout separately cites an overall Fort Collins crime rate of 27 per 1,000 residents and describes the city as having one of the highest crime rates in America when compared against all U.S. communities of all sizes -- a methodology that, as this file's header notes, compares Fort Collins against small towns nationally, not just peer-sized cities. The same source notes that more than 81% of Colorado communities specifically have a lower crime rate than Fort Collins, meaning Fort Collins runs relatively high within Colorado's own set of communities as well, not only against the smallest towns nationally.
Property Crime Is the Larger Category
Per NeighborhoodScout, most of Fort Collins's crime is property crime, with a cited 1-in-42 chance of being a property-crime victim (a rate of 24 per 1,000 residents) -- a substantially larger share of the overall 27-per-1,000 figure than violent crime, consistent with the general national pattern that property crime outweighs violent crime in most mid-sized U.S. cities.
Registered Sex Offenders
As of May 2026, there were 342 registered sex offenders living in Fort Collins, per aggregated public-registry data -- a factual figure cited here without further characterization, since registry counts reflect a mix of historical and current cases rather than a direct measure of current crime rates.
How to Read These Two Sources Together
Rather than picking whichever source is more reassuring, this page discloses both: CrimeGrade's neighborhood-level data suggests most individual Fort Collins neighborhoods are genuinely very safe day to day, while NeighborhoodScout's broader, all-communities comparison places Fort Collins relatively high on crime among both national small towns and Colorado communities specifically. Anyone weighing a specific address should check block-level or neighborhood-specific data directly rather than relying on either single citywide framing alone.
Key takeaways
- CrimeGrade.org rates 97.9% of Fort Collins's 193 mapped neighborhoods 'Very Safe (A),' with an average crime score placing the city overall in its safest category.
- NeighborhoodScout cites a 27-per-1,000 overall crime rate and describes Fort Collins as having one of the highest crime rates in America compared against all U.S. communities of all sizes -- while also noting more than 81% of Colorado communities specifically have a lower crime rate than Fort Collins.
- Property crime is the larger category (a cited 1-in-42 victimization odds, 24 per 1,000) relative to violent crime within the overall 27-per-1,000 figure.
- 342 registered sex offenders were living in Fort Collins as of May 2026, per aggregated public-registry data.
- These two sources reflect a genuine methodological tension (neighborhood-level safety vs. an all-communities-nationally comparison) rather than a simple disagreement -- check block-level data for a specific address rather than relying on either framing alone.
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