Orange County crime statistics for 2025 show a burglary pattern that runs the opposite direction from a neighboring region: businesses are hit even more often here than the state average. Law enforcement agencies across Orange County reported 5,888 burglaries to the California Department of Justice in 2025, and 3,799 of them — 64.5 percent — were non-residential. Residential burglary accounted for the other 2,089.
Last updated 18 August 2026 · Isaac Roberts, Security Specialist, Guardian National Security (PPO #120268)
This 2026 report covers 2025 data — the most recent complete official year available from the California Department of Justice.
Orange County Crime Statistics at a Glance
- 41,934 property offenses were reported across the county in 2025 — a rate of 1,331.4 per 100,000 residents.
- 64.5 percent of burglaries were commercial, not residential — above California’s statewide share of 62.2 percent.
- Of the commercial burglaries with a recorded time of day, 54.3 percent happened at night.
- 12.5 percent of burglaries were cleared — 734 of 5,888. Fewer than one in eight closed with an arrest.
- Shoplifting rose 55.4 percent since 2021, while burglary fell 35.2 percent and vehicle theft fell 40.7 percent.
- 5,026 vehicles were stolen, and 10,275 additional larcenies targeted vehicles without taking them.
- Population: 3,149,507 (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
Every figure on this page comes from the California Department of Justice’s Crimes and Clearances collection or the U.S. Census Bureau, and every one can be re-derived from the raw files linked in the methodology section.
1. Orange County Recorded 41,934 Property Offenses in 2025
Orange County recorded 41,934 property offenses in 2025 across all 40 reporting law enforcement agencies in the county. That breaks into 31,020 larcenies, 5,888 burglaries and 5,026 vehicle thefts. Against a population of 3,149,507, the property crime rate was 1,331.4 per 100,000 residents.
| Category | Offenses | Share of property crime | Rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Larceny-theft | 31,020 | 74.0% | 984.9 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 5,026 | 12.0% | 159.6 |
| Burglary | 5,888 | 14.0% | 186.9 |
| Total property | 41,934 | 100% | 1,331.4 |
Violent crime is counted separately and is not included in any property figure on this page. Agencies reported 8,367 violent offenses in the county in 2025, of which 4,412 were cleared.
2. Orange County’s Commercial Burglary Share Runs Above the California Average
Orange County’s commercial burglary share runs above the California average. Of the 5,888 burglaries reported across the county in 2025, 3,799 were non-residential and 2,089 were residential — a 64.5 to 35.5 split. This is the single most useful figure on the page for anyone deciding whether a commercial property needs overnight coverage.
That pattern runs opposite to the Inland Empire, where the commercial share of burglary sits below the statewide figure. California as a whole reported 109,596 burglaries in 2025, of which 68,153 — 62.2 percent — were non-residential. Orange County’s businesses absorb a larger share of burglary risk than the state average, not a smaller one.
| Area | Total burglary | Non-residential | Residential | Commercial share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange County | 5,888 | 3,799 | 2,089 | 64.5% |
| California | 109,596 | 68,153 | 41,443 | 62.2% |
3. Most Commercial Burglaries With a Known Time Happen at Night
Most Orange County commercial burglaries with a recorded time happen at night. Of the 3,799 non-residential burglaries in 2025, agencies logged 1,938 as night and 1,630 as day, leaving 231 with no time recorded. Among the 3,568 that carry a time, 54.3 percent were night burglaries.
The 231 unrecorded cases are only 6.1 percent of all commercial burglaries, a far smaller unknown share than some neighboring counties report — so the night figure describes nearly all commercial burglaries, not a partial subset. This page does not claim to know how the unrecorded cases would split.
| Time recorded | Burglaries | Share of all commercial | Share of those with a time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Night | 1,938 | 51.0% | 54.3% |
| Day | 1,630 | 42.9% | 45.7% |
| Not recorded | 231 | 6.1% | — |
Residential burglary splits the other way: 924 night against 1,002 day, with 163 unrecorded. Homes are burgled during the working day; businesses are burgled after it. That is the operational case for overnight coverage at industrial and warehouse sites rather than daytime-only staffing.
4. Only 12.5 Percent of Orange County Burglaries Are Cleared
Only 12.5 percent of Orange County burglaries are cleared. Agencies in the county cleared 734 of 5,888 burglaries in 2025, leaving 5,154 closed without an arrest or exceptional clearance. Vehicle theft cleared at 9.0 percent and larceny at 15.1 percent, putting overall property clearance at 14.0 percent.
For comparison, the same dataset puts California’s burglary clearance at 10.2 percent, so Orange County agencies clear burglary noticeably more often than the state average. Violent crime clears far more often: 4,412 of 8,367 offenses, or 52.7 percent.
| Offense | Reported | Cleared | Clearance rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burglary | 5,888 | 734 | 12.5% |
| Motor vehicle theft | 5,026 | 452 | 9.0% |
| Larceny-theft | 31,020 | 4,673 | 15.1% |
| All property | 41,934 | 5,859 | 14.0% |
| Violent | 8,367 | 4,412 | 52.7% |
The dataset does not split clearances into residential and non-residential, so this page does not report a commercial burglary clearance rate. That figure is not published and is not estimated here.
5. Shoplifting Rose 55.4 Percent While Burglary and Vehicle Theft Fell Sharply
Shoplifting in Orange County rose 55.4 percent between 2021 and 2025, from 5,357 offenses to 8,327. It is one of the only property categories in the county that grew over that period. Shoplifting now accounts for 26.8 percent of all larceny-theft in the county, up from 13.0 percent in 2021.
Every other major property category moved the opposite way — and violent crime, counted separately, ticked up rather than down. Total property crime fell 28.7 percent, commercial burglary fell 34.5 percent and motor vehicle theft fell 40.7 percent across the same five years, while violent offenses rose 2.7 percent, from 8,144 to 8,367. A countywide headline of “crime is down” is true for property crime in aggregate, wrong for retail operators, and silent on the violent-crime trend.
| Year | Property | Burglary | Commercial burglary | Vehicle theft | Shoplifting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 58,821 | 9,090 | 5,797 | 8,480 | 5,357 |
| 2022 | 59,875 | 10,304 | 7,186 | 8,480 | 6,159 |
| 2023 | 57,933 | 9,896 | 6,989 | 7,841 | 8,450 |
| 2024 | 53,008 | 7,616 | 5,089 | 6,643 | 9,912 |
| 2025 | 41,934 | 5,888 | 3,799 | 5,026 | 8,327 |
| Change | −28.7% | −35.2% | −34.5% | −40.7% | +55.4% |
6. Vehicles Are the Target in 15,301 Orange County Offenses
Vehicles were the target in 15,301 Orange County offenses in 2025. That is 5,026 completed motor vehicle thefts plus 10,275 larcenies that targeted a vehicle without taking it — 7,295 thefts from a vehicle and 2,980 thefts of vehicle parts or accessories. Vehicle-related larceny alone is 33.1 percent of all larceny in the county.
These are counted under separate offense headings and are added here only because they describe the same target. They are not combined anywhere in the source data, and the 15,301 total is this page’s arithmetic, stated so it can be checked. Vehicle theft fell 40.7 percent since 2021, the steepest decline of any category measured here — relevant to anyone weighing parking lot coverage or vehicle patrol.
7. Seven in Ten Orange County Burglaries Involve Forcible Entry
Seven in ten Orange County burglaries involve forcible entry. Of the 5,888 burglaries reported across the county in 2025, 4,180 were recorded as forcible entry and 1,708 as unlawful entry without force. The two categories sum exactly to the burglary total, so every reported burglary falls into one or the other.
The 29.0 percent that entered without force matters as much as the majority that did. CA DOJ records this as a binary classification and does not describe how any individual entry occurred, so this page does not characterize those 1,708 cases further. What the category does establish is that nearly a third of Orange County burglaries did not require defeating any physical barrier — which is why closing-time verification is a standard duty on a Guardian National Security post order, alongside the core guard services a site contracts.
8. Shoplifting and Vehicle Theft Dominate Orange County Larceny
Shoplifting and vehicle-related theft dominate Orange County larceny. Of 31,020 larceny-theft offenses in 2025, shoplifting accounted for 8,327 and thefts targeting vehicles for a further 10,275. The nine published subcategories sum exactly to the larceny total, with no residual or unclassified remainder.
| Subcategory | Offenses | Share of larceny |
|---|---|---|
| Shoplifting | 8,327 | 26.8% |
| All other larceny | 7,282 | 23.5% |
| Theft from a motor vehicle | 7,295 | 23.5% |
| Motor vehicle parts and accessories | 2,980 | 9.6% |
| Theft from a building | 2,663 | 8.6% |
| Bicycles | 1,650 | 5.3% |
| Pocket-picking | 723 | 2.3% |
| Purse-snatching | 85 | 0.3% |
| Coin-operated machines | 15 | <0.1% |
| Total larceny-theft | 31,020 | 100% |
“All other larceny” and theft from a motor vehicle are nearly tied for the second-largest line, at 23.5 percent each, and CA DOJ does not break the “all other” category down further, so this page does not speculate about its contents. The three named categories that a security program can actually influence — shoplifting, theft from vehicles, and theft from buildings — together account for 18,285 offenses, or 58.9 percent of all Orange County larceny.
9. Santa Ana and Orange Report the Highest Commercial Burglary Share Among Orange County Cities
Santa Ana and Orange report the highest commercial burglary share among Orange County’s largest cities. Anaheim recorded the most property crime overall at 6,002 offenses, followed by Santa Ana at 4,126 and Irvine at 3,676 — together the three largest cities account for 32.9 percent of countywide property crime.
Composition varies more than volume. Santa Ana’s burglaries were 78.7 percent commercial, and Orange ran even higher at 81.2 percent. Irvine and Huntington Beach both posted 58.7 percent, and Fullerton the lowest of the five at 57.5 percent — every one of them still a clear commercial majority.
| City | Property offenses | Burglary | Commercial burglary | Commercial share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim | 6,002 | 830 | 517 | 62.3% |
| Santa Ana | 4,126 | 681 | 536 | 78.7% |
| Irvine | 3,676 | 547 | 321 | 58.7% |
| Huntington Beach | 2,783 | 252 | 148 | 58.7% |
| Fullerton | 2,390 | 332 | 191 | 57.5% |
These are the five largest cities by property-crime volume, not a ranking of danger — a larger city reports more of everything. Every one of them still shows burglary running commercial-majority, consistent with the countywide 64.5 percent figure.
10. A District Park Agency Reports an All-Commercial Burglary Profile
Three Orange County law enforcement agencies reported an all-commercial burglary profile in 2025: the Orange Coast District Park and Recreation agency, whose 28 burglaries were entirely non-residential; the Union Pacific Railroad’s Orange County jurisdiction, with 4; and the California State University Fullerton police department, with 1. All three patrol jurisdictions that contain little or no housing, which is why their numbers land at 100 percent commercial rather than reflecting anything unusual about enforcement.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department runs the opposite pattern. It reported 106 burglaries across its unincorporated and contract-city jurisdictions in 2025, and only 32 of them — 30.2 percent — were commercial, well below the 64.5 percent countywide figure. Sheriff-served areas skew more residential than the county’s incorporated cities, which is the likely reason for the gap; this page does not claim to know the cause with certainty.
| Agency | Commercial burglary | Total burglary | Commercial share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Coast District Park and Recreation | 28 | 28 | 100% |
| Union Pacific Railroad – Orange County | 4 | 4 | 100% |
| California State University, Fullerton | 1 | 1 | 100% |
These are counts of reported offenses, not rates, and the three agencies above report far fewer total burglaries than any city police department in the county. They are included because the 100 percent figure is real, not because the volume is meaningful on its own.
What the Orange County Crime Statistics Mean for Property Owners
Three findings in these Orange County crime statistics change how a commercial site should be covered. First, the majority of burglary is commercial, and Orange County’s 64.5 percent share runs above the state average — the opposite of the pattern in some neighboring counties. Second, commercial burglary with a known time skews to night, while residential skews to day. Third, fewer than one in eight burglaries closes with an arrest.
That third figure is the one that matters most commercially. Clearance is what happens after a loss; at 12.5 percent it cannot be the plan. Deterrence and detection at the point of entry are the only controls a property owner actually governs, which is the argument for on-site presence at retail centers, construction sites and apartment and gated communities during the hours the data says entry occurs.
Guardian National Security covers Orange County from Irvine, Santa Ana and the surrounding cities, and publishes rates openly: unarmed guards $25–40 per hour, armed guards $35–65 per hour, with a price-match guarantee on any comparable licensed quote.
Methodology and Source Notes
The Orange County crime statistics on this page come from the California Department of Justice Crimes and Clearances (including Arson), 1985–2025 file, published July 2026 through OpenJustice. Figures were produced by filtering that file to rows where Year = 2025 and County is Orange County, then summing the named columns across all 40 reporting agencies.
These are UCR summary counts, not NIBRS incident records. California agencies report monthly offense totals under the FBI’s summary Uniform Crime Reporting definitions. That is a different measure from the incident-level NIBRS data some cities publish, and the two must never be added together or compared directly — which is why the figures here cannot be set against our Los Angeles property crime statistics, which are built from LAPD NIBRS records.
Every figure was derived twice, by different routes. Each headline number was computed from the annual file and then recomputed by summing the twelve monthly rows for 2025 in the separate by-month file. All twenty tested figures matched exactly. Internal subtotals also reconcile: residential plus non-residential burglary equals total burglary, the nine larceny subcategories sum to larceny-theft, and burglary plus vehicle theft plus larceny equals total property crime.
Raw file: Crimes and Clearances 1985–2025 (CSV). Definitions and reporting rules: CA DOJ context document. Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 county population estimates, using the Census Bureau’s 2025 population estimate for the county.
Limits of this data. These are offenses reported to police; unreported crime is not counted. “Orange County” here means every agency reporting to CA DOJ with a county of Orange, which includes the California Highway Patrol, a district park authority, university police departments and a railroad police jurisdiction alongside city police and the sheriff’s department. Clearance rates are not published split by residential and non-residential, so no commercial clearance rate is claimed.
Orange County Crime Statistics: Frequently Asked Questions
How much crime is there in Orange County?
Law enforcement agencies in Orange County reported 41,934 property offenses and 8,367 violent offenses in 2025. Against a population of 3,149,507, that is a property crime rate of 1,331.4 per 100,000 residents. The figures come from the California Department of Justice.
Property crime breaks into 31,020 larcenies, 5,888 burglaries and 5,026 motor vehicle thefts. All 40 reporting agencies in the county are included, from city police and the sheriff’s department to a district park authority, university and railroad police jurisdictions. These are offenses reported to police under FBI summary reporting definitions, so unreported crime is not counted anywhere in the totals.
Are businesses or homes burglarized more often in Orange County?
Businesses are burglarized far more often than homes in Orange County, based on the California Department of Justice’s 2025 data. Of 5,888 burglaries reported across the county that year, 3,799 were non-residential and 2,089 were residential — a 64.5 to 35.5 split in favor of commercial targets.
That share runs above the statewide figure: California as a whole reported a lower commercial share in 2025, at 62.2 percent of 109,596 burglaries. Santa Ana and Orange posted the highest commercial shares among the county’s largest cities, at 78.7 percent and 81.2 percent, while the sheriff’s contract-city jurisdictions ran far more residential, at 30.2 percent commercial.
What time of day do commercial burglaries happen in Orange County?
Orange County commercial burglaries skew to night among cases where a time was recorded. Agencies logged 1,938 non-residential burglaries as night and 1,630 as day in 2025, so 54.3 percent of the 3,568 with a recorded time occurred at night.
A further 231 commercial burglaries, or 6.1 percent of the total, carry no recorded time, so the night share describes recorded cases only. Residential burglary runs the other way, with 1,002 daytime cases against 924 night ones. Homes are entered during the working day and businesses after it, which is the practical argument for overnight rather than daytime-only commercial coverage.
How many Orange County burglaries lead to an arrest?
About one in eight Orange County burglaries leads to an arrest or exceptional clearance, according to the California Department of Justice. Agencies in the county cleared 734 of 5,888 burglaries in 2025, a clearance rate of 12.5 percent, leaving 5,154 closed with no one identified.
Motor vehicle theft cleared at 9.0 percent and larceny at 15.1 percent, putting overall property clearance at 14.0 percent. Violent crime clears far more often, at 52.7 percent of 8,367 offenses. California’s statewide burglary clearance rate was lower, at 10.2 percent. The dataset does not split clearances into residential and non-residential, so no commercial clearance rate is published.
Is crime rising or falling in Orange County?
Orange County property crime is falling overall but rising sharply in one retail category. Total property offenses dropped 28.7 percent between 2021 and 2025, from 58,821 to 41,934, while commercial burglary fell 34.5 percent and motor vehicle theft fell 40.7 percent over the same five years.
Shoplifting is the exception and moved the opposite way, rising 55.4 percent from 5,357 offenses in 2021 to 8,327 in 2025 — now 26.8 percent of all larceny-theft, up from 13.0 percent. Violent crime, counted separately, ticked up 2.7 percent over the same period. A countywide summary of falling crime is accurate for property offenses in aggregate and misleading for retail operators and for violent crime.
Which Orange County city has the highest commercial burglary share?
Orange had the highest commercial burglary share among Orange County’s largest cities in 2025, at 81.2 percent, with Santa Ana close behind at 78.7 percent. Anaheim recorded the most property crime overall, 6,002 offenses, but a lower commercial share at 62.3 percent.
Irvine and Huntington Beach both posted 58.7 percent commercial and Fullerton the lowest of the five largest cities at 57.5 percent — still a clear majority in every case. These figures rank reporting volume and composition, not danger; a larger city reports more of everything, and this page does not rank cities by risk.
Where do these Orange County crime statistics come from?
These Orange County crime statistics are drawn from the California Department of Justice Crimes and Clearances file covering 1985 through 2025, published through OpenJustice in July 2026. Population denominators come from the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 county population estimates.
Every headline figure was derived twice, once from the annual file and once by summing the twelve monthly rows for 2025 in the separate by-month file. All twenty tested figures matched exactly. These are UCR summary counts and are not comparable with, and must never be added to, NIBRS incident data published by individual cities.
