The Knoxville metro area, the 60th-largest in the US, is home to 932,200 residents; Knoxville itself is the third-largest city in Tennessee · Updated November 2026
How common is property crime in the Knoxville area?
Property crime in the Knoxville area is a little lower than in most US neighborhoods: an A, safer than the neighborhoods where 65% of Americans live. Theft makes up 58% of it. Burglary, the crime most likely to reach into a home, grades A, and vehicle theft grades A. The city of Knoxville itself grades A- for property crime.
A
Property crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 889 of 1,000Less property crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
65% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more property crime than the Knoxville area as a whole, and 35% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a property crime safety score of 823, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Knoxville area scores 889.
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 property crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its property crime with the homes, parked cars and people there, on one national scale, from green for the least 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 Knoxville, TN at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Knoxville 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 about property crime in the Knoxville area
Burglaries run high in Fort Sanders, Beaumont & Mechanicsville. In this part of central Knoxville, they run at about triple the rate in the rest of Knoxville.
Car thefts happen at homes more often than nationally. In the Knoxville area, 57% of reported car thefts happen at homes, against 33% nationally.
Where property crime is lowest and highest in the Knoxville area
Low property crime is the norm across the Knoxville area: 97% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Property crime grades across the Knoxville area run from A+ to C-.
97%
A or B 97%C 3%
Share of residents, by the property crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Knoxville
1Westlyn, southwestCar thefts run at about half the rate in the rest of Knoxville.A863
2Belle Morris, northeastClose to the rest of Knoxville on most crimes.A-828
3Oakwood, northClose to the rest of Knoxville on most crimes.A-794
5Fort Sanders, Beaumont & Mechanicsville, centralCar thefts run at about triple the rate in the rest of Knoxville.B633
Neighborhood areas of the city of Knoxville, ranked by property crime 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 Knoxville metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by property crime CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Is property crime going up in the Knoxville area?
Reported property crime in the Knoxville area has fallen 42% since 2019. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 21 to 12 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 13%.
Property crime, change since 2019
Knoxville areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Knoxville area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Knoxville area
Property, US
2016
+32%
+15%
2017
+23%
+12%
2018
+7%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-4%
-8%
2021
-3%
-10%
2022
-22%
-6%
2023
-33%
-7%
2024
-42%
-15%
Property crime rates and types in the Knoxville area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Knoxville area has about 15 reported property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 36% less than the US as a whole and 43% less than Tennessee.
All property crime
Burglary
Vehicle theft
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. Property crime here includes vandalism, which the FBI's property crime rate leaves out.
Theft is the most common property crime in the Knoxville area, about 58% of the total, followed by vandalism and vehicle theft.
Each CrimeGrade™ here compares a property crime with what it affects: homes for burglary and arson, parked cars for vehicle theft, people and parking for theft, homes and businesses for vandalism. 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 property crime happens in the Knoxville area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Knoxville area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Knoxville area, 69% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (69%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (57%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (53%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (54%)
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.
Property crime in the Knoxville area and nearby metro areas
The Knoxville area has the least property crime of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Knoxville area. Beside each property crime CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Knoxville area is safer than 91% of them.
Density, night lighting and empty homes in the Knoxville area
Among the traits that tend to go with property crime, one sets the Knoxville area apart: it has 5% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less car theft; here car theft sits near the national middle.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more car theft.5% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 93% of Americans in metro areas
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.61% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 92% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.7.8% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 82% 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 property crime costs the Knoxville area
Property crime costs the Knoxville area about $102 million a year, or $109 per resident and about $276 per household: the value of what is stolen or damaged, plus the police, courts and prisons that respond.
Cost of property crime per resident, per year
How the cost breaks down
Pain and suffering add little to the cost of property crime, so this is close to its full cost.
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Burglary
$13 million
$14
Theft
$43 million
$46
Vehicle theft
$24 million
$26
Arson
$1.0 million
$1
Vandalism
$20 million
$22
Total
$102 million
$109
How CrimeGrade™ works
The property crime CrimeGrade™ covers burglary, theft, car theft, arson and vandalism, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most, on one scale for the whole country.
It weighs each property crime against what it affects: homes for burglary and arson, parked cars for car theft, and the people and parking around stores for theft.
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 Knoxville 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
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
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.
