The drop in crime in Dayton mirrored the nationwide decline, according to the FBI’s Final Uniform Crime Report for 2011, released this week.

According to Police Department figures, violent crime —murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, unarmed robbery and aggravated assault — was down 16 percent from 2010. The FBI’s figures for violent crime — defined as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — showed violent crime down 1.1 percent.

The difference in the numbers comes in the way FBI classifies crimes reported to it by local departments. The Dayton police statistics showed 1,571 violent crimes in 2010 and 1,321 in 2011. The FBI’s numbers for those years are 1,511 and 1,355.

FBI figures show property crimes in Dayton down 4.8 percent, while the Police Department statistics show a 6 percent drop.

“Overall, crime in Dayton has decreased over the past six years,” Chief Richard Biehl said Tuesday. “Individual crime categories tend to vary year-to-year.

“Last year was an exceptional decline in violent crime. That’s very good news for the city.”

Both the FBI and Dayton figures showed violent crime in all categories decreasing or stable when compared with 2009 numbers.

According to the FBI numbers, violent crime decreased from more than 1.42 million offenses nationwide in 2007 to just over 1.2 million on 2011. Over the same 5-year period, property crime dropped from less than 9.9 million to around 9 million.