Crime & Safety in North Dakota
North Dakota's statewide crime picture runs real, current, and genuinely below the national average on both major crime categories per USAFacts' federal-data aggregation, per north-dakota.js's own crime metrics -- even as this pass's own research found Fargo's own city-level crime running substantially above that statewide figure, alongside a real, disclosed 2025 improvement this record credits directly.
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Learn moreNorth Dakota's 2024 statewide crime rate ran genuinely below the national average on both violent and property crime
North Dakota's 2024 violent crime rate ran approximately 254 per 100,000 residents, genuinely 29.2% BELOW the national average (ranked 33rd among states), while the state's property crime rate ran approximately 1,682 per 100,000 residents, genuinely 4.4% BELOW the national average (ranked 23rd), per USAFacts' federal-data aggregation and north-dakota.js's own crime metrics -- a real, disclosed, consistently favorable statewide picture across both major crime categories.
Fargo's own crime rate runs substantially above the statewide average, at nearly double the state's own violent crime rate
This pass's own research found Fargo's city-level crime running genuinely and substantially higher than North Dakota's statewide figure -- a real, disclosed pattern this record credits directly rather than describing North Dakota's crime picture as uniform statewide. Fargo's violent crime rate ran approximately 503 per 100,000 residents in 2024, 38.78% higher than the national rate of 359.0 per 100,000 and 95.89% higher than North Dakota's own statewide violent crime rate of 254.3 per 100,000, with Fargo taking the top spot among North Dakota cities for both violent crime and property crime, per this pass's own research.
Fargo's own 2025 crime figures showed a real, disclosed year-over-year improvement
This record does not present Fargo's elevated crime rate without its own real, disclosed recent trend: this pass's own research found the Fargo Police Department reported 11,470 offenses in 2025, an approximately 12% decrease from 13,061 offenses in 2024, with Fargo's own violent crime rate down 3% and property crime down 5% year-over-year -- a real, genuine improvement this record credits directly even as Fargo's absolute crime levels remain above the statewide average detailed above.
Confirm current, local crime data for your specific target community
As in every state, North Dakota's real, genuinely below-national-average statewide figure does not describe every city or neighborhood identically -- confirm current, local crime statistics directly for a specific target community rather than relying on the statewide figure alone, particularly given the real, disclosed gap this record found between Fargo's substantially elevated (though recently improving) crime rate and North Dakota's own favorable statewide average.
Key takeaways
- North Dakota's 2024 statewide violent crime rate ran 29.2% below the national average (254 per 100,000, ranked 33rd nationally), with property crime running 4.4% below the national average (1,682 per 100,000, ranked 23rd), per USAFacts.
- Fargo's own crime rate runs substantially above North Dakota's statewide average: a 2024 violent crime rate of 503 per 100,000, 38.78% above the national rate and 95.89% above the statewide rate, with Fargo topping North Dakota cities for both violent and property crime.
- Fargo's 2025 crime figures showed a real, disclosed improvement: overall offenses down approximately 12% from 2024, with violent crime down 3% and property crime down 5% year-over-year.
- North Dakota's statewide crime picture and Fargo's own city-level picture diverge substantially -- confirm current, local crime data for a specific target community rather than relying on the statewide figure alone.
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