Crime Rate in Ottawa County: How Does It Compare?
Objective FBI crime statistics, compared to similar-size Michigan cities — reported offenses per 100,000 residents.
FBI collection year 2024 · retrieved from the FBI June 2026 · source and method
In 2024, the most common reported offenses in Ottawa County were larceny / theft (518 per 100,000 residents) and aggravated assault (146 per 100,000 residents), per FBI Uniform Crime Reporting.
For perspective, homicide — the most serious crime — was reported at about 0.001% of the population, roughly 1 in 100,000 residents.
| Offense type | Per 100k residents |
|---|---|
| Larceny / theft | 518 |
| Aggravated assault | 146 |
| Burglary | 85 |
| Rape | 52 |
| Motor-vehicle theft | 46 |
| Robbery | 5 |
| Arson | 3 |
| Homicide | 1 |
Reported offenses per 100,000 residents, Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (2024). Comparison cities are the nearest in population, ordered by size — not ranked by crime. Crime is reported at the jurisdiction level and varies block to block within any community.
Where these numbers come from
- Source: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, as reported by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office for the 2024 collection year. Retrieved June 2026.
- Denominator: every rate on this page is the reported count divided by 265,643 residents — the population the FBI publishes for this agency's jurisdiction in 2024 — then multiplied by 100,000. The underlying counts are 543 violent and 1,733 property offenses. Census population estimates for the same place differ from the FBI's by a small margin, so a rate computed from Census figures will not match this one exactly.
- Limits: agencies report voluntarily and their record-keeping practices differ, so comparisons between places are approximate. These are offenses reported to police — not convictions, and not incidents that went unreported. Figures cover the agency's whole jurisdiction and say nothing about any particular street or address.
- What we don't do: we publish these counts as data and never use them to rank, score or recommend places, and never to describe who lives anywhere.
Getting to know Ottawa County?
See the full Ottawa County overview — schools, walkability, cost of living, and listings.
Get new Ottawa County homes by email
New listings and price drops, sent the moment they hit the market. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.