The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Boston, MA
The Boston metro area, the 11th-largest in the US, is home to 4.95 million residents in Massachusetts and New Hampshire; Boston itself is the capital and largest city of Massachusetts · Updated November 2026
Is Boston, MA safe?
Yes, crime in the Boston area is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A. Because most US neighborhoods are safe as well, the Boston area sits near the middle: safer than the neighborhoods where 55% of Americans live. Violent and property crime both grade A here. The city of Boston itself grades B. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Boston area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 860 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
55% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Boston area as a whole, and 45% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Boston area scores 860.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Boston, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Boston area, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in the Boston area
One part of Boston stands out for robbery. Robberies in Roxbury & Mount Bowdoin, in southwest Boston, run at more than triple the rate in the rest of the city.
Car thefts and arsons both run low. In the Boston area, each runs at less than half the US rate: 0.95 car thefts and 0.04 arsons a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 and 0.12 nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Boston area
Most of the Boston area grades well: 90% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 5% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Boston area run from A+ to F; 64% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
90%
A or B 90%C 5%D or F 5%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Boston
1Neponset, southeastCar thefts run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Boston.A-778
2Back Bay & Allston-Brighton, northwestRobberies run at less than half the rate in the rest of Boston.A-770
8Roxbury & Mount Bowdoin, southwestThefts run at more than triple the rate in the rest of Boston.F46
Neighborhood areas of the city of Boston, ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer). Each one combines several of the smaller areas on the map.
Cities and towns in the Boston metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Across the area, the Waltham, Marlborough, and Lexington areas have the least crime and the Brockton, Hyde Park, and Randolph areas the most.
Is crime going up in the Boston area?
Reported crime in the Boston area has held about steady since 2019: violent crime is down 2% and property crime down 2%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 2.8 to 2.7 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 11 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Boston areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Boston area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Boston area
Violent, US
Property, Boston area
Property, US
2016
+13%
+4%
+24%
+15%
2017
+8%
+4%
+16%
+12%
2018
+3%
+0%
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-9%
+4%
-10%
-8%
2021
-11%
+6%
-13%
-10%
2022
-2%
+5%
-7%
-6%
2023
-2%
+2%
-2%
-7%
2024
-2%
-4%
-2%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Boston area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Boston area has about 25 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 34% less than the US as a whole and close to Massachusetts.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
The largest share of crime reported in the Boston area is assault, about 37% of the total. It also makes up the largest share of what crime costs here.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in the Boston area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Boston area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Boston area, 60% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 35% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (60%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (37%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (35%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (40%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (35%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (49%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How the Boston area compares with nearby metro areas
The Boston area has less crime than 7 of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Boston area. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Boston area is safer than 99% of them.
Empty homes, transit and density in the Boston area
Two things set the Boston area apart: it has 4.3% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally, and 12 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby. Places with few empty homes tend to report less burglary, and it runs low here.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.4.3% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 93% of Americans in metro areas
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the Boston area: D+ (18 of 100).12 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 82% of Americans in metro areas
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.39% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 78% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.77% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 75% of Americans in metro areas
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs the Boston area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Boston area about $681 a year per household, 44% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $1.30 billion a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $3.87 billion a year, or $781 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$123 million
$25
Rape
$71 million
$14
Robbery
$55 million
$11
Assault
$568 million
$115
Burglary
$50 million
$10
Theft
$232 million
$47
Vehicle theft
$73 million
$15
Arson
$4.5 million
$1
Vandalism
$126 million
$26
Total
$1.30 billion
$263
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in the Boston area means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. These figures cover the whole Boston metro area. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in the Boston area average a SchoolGrade of B-: 46% of students test proficient, against 46% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Boston area on SchoolGrade
