What time do burglaries happen?
Home burglaries are mostly a daytime crime. More than half of the ones in the 2024 FBI data happened between 6am and 6pm and, setting aside the midnight default explained below, noon was the busiest hour. The picture of someone creeping in at 3am is the minority case: the 1am to 6am stretch accounts for about one in nine.
Below are the time bands, for the whole country and by state.
Hour by hour
The grey bar at midnight isn't a real peak.
Time bands by state
| State | 6am to 6pm | 6pm to midnight | Midnight to 6am |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 57.6% | 21.8% | 20.6% |
| Arkansas | 59.5% | 24% | 16.5% |
| Colorado | 49.5% | 25.5% | 25% |
| Connecticut | 60.8% | 24% | 15.1% |
| Delaware | 52.7% | 23.6% | 23.7% |
| District of Columbia | 55.2% | 24.4% | 20.4% |
| Georgia | 59% | 22.8% | 18.2% |
| Hawaii | 41.4% | 14.3% | 44.3% |
| Idaho | 56.4% | 23.2% | 20.4% |
| Illinois | 55.2% | 23.9% | 20.8% |
| Indiana | 57.5% | 23.6% | 18.8% |
| Iowa | 53.8% | 23.4% | 22.7% |
| Kansas | 54.2% | 26.7% | 19.1% |
| Kentucky | 51.5% | 26.2% | 22.3% |
| Louisiana | 62.1% | 21.7% | 16.2% |
| Maine | 61.9% | 18.3% | 19.8% |
| Maryland | 49.6% | 21.2% | 29.2% |
| Massachusetts | 58.7% | 24.8% | 16.5% |
| Michigan | 57.8% | 25.5% | 16.6% |
| Minnesota | 54.1% | 25.2% | 20.7% |
| Missouri | 55.3% | 23.1% | 21.6% |
| Montana | 57.2% | 24.7% | 18.1% |
| Nevada | 57.2% | 25.7% | 17% |
| New Hampshire | 67.4% | 21.3% | 11.2% |
| New Mexico | 60% | 22.5% | 17.6% |
| North Carolina | 59% | 24.2% | 16.8% |
| North Dakota | 47.5% | 26.2% | 26.3% |
| Ohio | 53.8% | 26% | 20.2% |
| Oklahoma | 62.5% | 25.7% | 11.8% |
| Oregon | 54.7% | 22.1% | 23.2% |
| Rhode Island | 56.5% | 28.1% | 15.4% |
| South Carolina | 56% | 23.3% | 20.6% |
| South Dakota | 53.4% | 25% | 21.6% |
| Tennessee | 57.9% | 24.3% | 17.8% |
| Texas | 53.9% | 23.7% | 22.4% |
| Utah | 57.3% | 26.4% | 16.3% |
| Vermont | 71% | 20.2% | 8.8% |
| Virginia | 49.9% | 26% | 24.1% |
| Washington | 49.9% | 23.3% | 26.8% |
| West Virginia | 51.5% | 20.6% | 27.9% |
| Wisconsin | 47.2% | 19.8% | 33.1% |
| Wyoming | 60% | 22.6% | 17.4% |
The midnight oddity
Midnight is reported as the hour for about 10% of home burglaries, far more than any hour around it, and it isn't real. When a burglary is discovered later, many agencies log midnight as a default. That's why this page uses bands and not an hour-by-hour chart as its main view.
The pattern worth acting on is the ordinary one: the house is empty on a weekday while everyone's at work or school. Night-time burglary happens, but it's the smaller share.
Questions
What time of day do most home burglaries happen?
54.4% of reported home burglaries in 2024 fell between 6am and 6pm. Apart from the midnight default, noon was the busiest hour.
Are burglaries more common at night?
No. Only 11.3% fell between 1am and 6am, and 23.8% between 6pm and midnight.
Why does midnight show so many burglaries?
Many agencies record midnight when the real hour is unknown, for example when the burglary was found later. It is a reporting default, not a real peak.
Sources
- FBI Crime Data Explorer, NIBRS 2024 master file (US government data, public domain). Residential burglary is offense code 220 at a residence or home.
- US Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 state population estimates.
- How the numbers were built: About the data.