The Providence metro area, the 38th-largest in the US, is home to 1.68 million residents in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; Providence itself is the capital and largest city of Rhode Island · Updated November 2026
How common is property crime in the Providence area?
Property crime in the Providence area sits near the national middle: an A, safer than the neighborhoods where 56% of Americans live. Theft makes up 55% of it. Burglary, the crime most likely to reach into a home, grades A, and vehicle theft grades A. The city of Providence itself grades B for property crime.
A
Property crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 851 of 1,000About as much property crime as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
56% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more property crime than the Providence area as a whole, and 44% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a property crime safety score of 823, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Providence area scores 851.
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 Providence, RI at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Providence 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 Providence area
Car thefts run high in Silver Lake & Hartford. In this part of southwest Providence, they run at about double the rate in the rest of Providence.
Burglary runs low. The Providence area has 1.1 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents, about half the US rate of 2.4.
Where property crime is lowest and highest in the Providence area
Low property crime is the norm across the Providence area: 85% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 7% in areas graded D or F. Property crime grades across the Providence area run from A+ to F.
85%
A or B 85%C 8%D or F 7%
Share of residents, by the property crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Providence
1Elmhurst, Twin Rivers Beach & Woodville, northwestCar thefts run at about half the rate in the rest of Providence.A-792
2Blackstone, Mount Hope & Hope, northeastCar thefts run about 40% lower here than in the rest of Providence.A-770
9Silver Lake & Hartford, southwestThefts run about 80% higher here than in the rest of Providence.C+472
Neighborhood areas of the city of Providence, 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 Providence 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 Providence area?
Reported property crime in the Providence area has fallen 27% since 2019. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 14 to 10 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). Property crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Property crime, change since 2019
Providence areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Providence area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Providence area
Property, US
2016
+31%
+15%
2017
+20%
+12%
2018
+10%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-20%
-8%
2021
-19%
-10%
2022
-14%
-6%
2023
-22%
-7%
2024
-27%
-15%
Property crime rates and types in the Providence area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Providence area has about 15 reported property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 35% less than the US as a whole and close to Rhode Island.
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 Providence area, about 55% 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 Providence area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Providence area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Providence area, 69% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Car thefts happen most often at homes: 39% of them, against 33% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (69%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (39%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (39%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (45%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
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 Providence area and nearby metro areas
The Providence area has less property crime than 6 of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Providence 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 Providence area is safer than 87% of them.
Night lighting, empty homes and density in the Providence area
The Providence area looks like a typical metro area on the traits that tend to go with property crime.
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.75% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 79% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.5.1% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 76% 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.32% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 67% 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 Providence area
Property crime costs the Providence area about $179 million a year, or $106 per resident and about $267 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
$17 million
$10
Theft
$74 million
$44
Vehicle theft
$31 million
$19
Arson
$3.5 million
$2
Vandalism
$54 million
$32
Total
$179 million
$106
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 Providence 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.
