Rape on Campus
Open-data reference.
National trends for rape incidents reported under the Clery Act across US colleges and universities.
Rape is a Clery Act reportable offense category — penetration without consent.. Across the 3-year reporting window from 2021 to 2023, US colleges and universities cumulatively reported 17,743 rape incidents on-campus. The most recent year on record (2023) shows 5,697 incidents across 5,673 reporting institutions, an average of 1.00 per reporting school. Year-over-year, rape reporting fell by 7.8% — a signal that should be read alongside reporting-practice changes, not only real-world incidence.
The peak year for rape reporting was 2022 with 6,180 incidents. An average of 5,673 institutions submitted data each year across the reporting window. The single institution with the most reported rape incidents in 2023 is University of Utah in SALT LAKE CITY, UT with 172 incidents (3% of the national total). Schools reporting zero incidents are not automatically safer than high-count schools — the Clery Act compliance rate, reporting culture, campus enrollment, and the presence of mandatory reporter training all shape what reaches the federal dataset.
The figures on this page cover on-campus incidents only — additional categories in the Clery Act dataset cover non-campus buildings, public property adjacent to campus, and residential facilities separately. When comparing institutions, always anchor the count against enrollment size: a research university with 40,000 students and 30 reported incidents has a dramatically lower per-capita rate than a 2,000-student college with 10 reported incidents. The tables below rank institutions by raw incident count rather than by per-student rate, so treat top-of-list schools as starting points for comparison rather than unsafe-campus verdicts. Jump into each school's detail page to see enrollment, safety score, and peer comparisons side by side.
Clery Act category mix · most recent reporting year (2023) · per 1,000 enrolled. Source: U.S. Department of Education Clery Act crime data.
Year-by-Year Trend
| Year | Total Incidents | Schools Reporting | Per Reporting School |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5,866 | 5,673 | 1.03 |
| 2022 | 6,180 | 5,673 | 1.09 |
| 2023 | 5,697 | 5,673 | 1.00 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education Clery Act Campus Safety Survey · 2023 National trend for Rape. Counts cover on-campus incidents reported by 5,673 institutions.
Schools with Most Reports (2023)
Note: Higher numbers do not necessarily indicate a less safe campus — larger institutions and those with active reporting programs may show more incidents.
| # | Institution | State | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Utah SALT LAKE CITY | UT | 172 |
| 2 | Hartwick College ONEONTA | NY | 114 |
| 3 | Villanova University VILLANOVA | PA | 66 |
| 4 | Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis INDIANAPOLIS | IN | 65 |
| 5 | University of California-Los Angeles LOS ANGELES | CA | 61 |
| 6 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley | CA | 61 |
| 7 | Ohio State University-Main Campus COLUMBUS | OH | 59 |
| 8 | Texas A & M University-College Station COLLEGE STATION | TX | 58 |
| 9 | Yale University NEW HAVEN | CT | 53 |
| 10 | University of Iowa IOWA CITY | IA | 51 |
| 11 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus UNIVERSITY PARK | PA | 42 |
| 12 | Michigan State University EAST LANSING | MI | 38 |
| 13 | University of Colorado Boulder Boulder | CO | 36 |
| 14 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor ANN ARBOR | MI | 33 |
| 15 | Stanford University STANFORD | CA | 31 |
| 16 | The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA | AL | 31 |
| 17 | Indiana University-Bloomington BLOOMINGTON | IN | 30 |
| 18 | Texas State University SAN MARCOS | TX | 29 |
| 19 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus CINCINNATI | OH | 29 |
| 20 | Cornell University ITHACA | NY | 28 |
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.