WASHINGTON — A violent crime or property crime hit one in four U.S. households last year, virtually the same level as the past five years, a Justice Department report said Sunday.

“In 1975, when this statistical series commenced, about one in three households was struck by crime,” said Steven Dillingham, director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics which produced the report.

The actual percentage of households that suffered a violent crime or property crime was 24.9 percent, up slightly from 24.6 percent in 1988, the report found. The figures include attempted as well as completed crimes.

A total of 23.5 million households suffered from one of the crimes checked: rape, assault, robbery, personal theft, household theft, burglary and motor vehicle theft.

The bureau’s figures come from the National Crime Survey, which annually interviews members of 49,000 households nationwide to determine crimes to household members who are at least 12 years old. The NCS does not check for murder, because it compiles its information from surveys of victims.

A total of 4.9 percent of households experienced a violent crime, with 3.9 percent suffering assault, 1 percent robbery and 0.1 percent rape, the survey found. The year before, violent crime had hit 4.8 percent of homes.