The Memphis metro area, the 44th-largest in the US, is home to 1.34 million residents in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas; Memphis itself is the second-largest city in Tennessee · Updated November 2026
How common is property crime in the Memphis area?
The Memphis area grades C+ for property crime, with more of it than the neighborhoods where 78% of Americans live. Theft makes up 49% of it. Burglary, the crime most likely to reach into a home, grades B, and vehicle theft grades C+. The city of Memphis itself grades F for property crime.
C+
Property crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 532 of 1,000More property crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
22% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more property crime than the Memphis area as a whole, and 78% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a property crime safety score of 823, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Memphis area scores 532.
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 Memphis, TN at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Memphis 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 Memphis area
Car thefts run high in East Memphis-Colonial-Yorkshire & Midtown-Memphis. In this part of central Memphis, they run at about double the rate in the rest of Memphis.
Burglaries and thefts both run high. In the Memphis area, each runs at about double the US rate: 5.1 burglaries and 25.7 thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.4 and 13.1 nationally.
Where property crime is lowest and highest in the Memphis area
Property crime varies widely across the Memphis area: 52% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 41% in areas graded D or F. Property crime grades across the Memphis area run from A+ to F.
52%41%
A or B 52%C 7%D or F 41%
Share of residents, by the property crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
6Downtown Memphis, westActs of vandalism run about 50% higher here than in the rest of Memphis.F0
Neighborhood areas of the city of Memphis, 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 Memphis 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 Memphis area?
Reported property crime in the Memphis area has held about steady since 2019, within 1%. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 40 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 20%.
Property crime, change since 2019
Memphis areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Memphis area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Memphis area
Property, US
2016
-4%
+15%
2017
+4%
+12%
2018
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-7%
-8%
2021
-13%
-10%
2022
+8%
-6%
2023
+24%
-7%
2024
-1%
-15%
Property crime rates and types in the Memphis area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Memphis area has about 52 reported property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about double the rate for the US as a whole and 93% more 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 Memphis area, about 49% 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 Memphis area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Memphis area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Memphis area, 64% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Car thefts happen most often at homes: 55% of them, against 33% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (64%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (58%)
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 Memphis area and nearby metro areas
The Memphis area has the most property crime of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Memphis 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 Memphis area has more property crime than 99% of them.
Empty homes, density and night lighting in the Memphis area
Among the traits that tend to go with property crime, one sets the Memphis area apart: it has 10% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less car theft, yet car theft runs higher here than that would suggest.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.9.4% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 92% of Americans in metro areas
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more car theft.10% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 78% 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.84% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 60% 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 Memphis area
Property crime costs the Memphis area about $544 million a year, or $406 per resident and about $1,047 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
$61 million
$46
Theft
$177 million
$132
Vehicle theft
$179 million
$133
Arson
$9.7 million
$7
Vandalism
$117 million
$87
Total
$544 million
$406
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 Memphis 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.
