The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Albuquerque, NM
The Albuquerque metro area, the 61st-largest in the US, is home to 921,500 residents; Albuquerque itself is the largest city in New Mexico · Updated November 2026
Is Albuquerque, NM safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B-, the Albuquerque area has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 79% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent and property crime both grade B- here. The city of Albuquerque itself grades D. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Albuquerque area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 569 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
21% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Albuquerque area as a whole, and 79% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Albuquerque area scores 569.
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 Albuquerque, NM at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Albuquerque 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 Albuquerque area
Burglaries run high for a B-graded metro area. The Albuquerque area has 5.9 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a B-graded US metro area, the figure is 2.4.
Car thefts and aggravated assaults both run high. In the Albuquerque area, each runs at more than double the US rate: 7.3 car thefts and 7.3 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 and 2.6 nationally.
Robberies happen at stores and businesses far more often than nationally. In the Albuquerque area, 63% of reported robberies happen at stores and businesses, against 33% nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Albuquerque area
Crime varies widely across the Albuquerque area: 40% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 43% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Albuquerque area run from A+ to F; 12% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
40%17%43%
A or B 40%C 17%D or F 43%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
9Westgate Hts, southwestRobberies run about 80% higher here than in the rest of Albuquerque.F0
Neighborhood areas of the city of Albuquerque, 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 Albuquerque 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 Paradise Hills area has the least crime and the Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and North Valley areas the most.
Is crime going up in the Albuquerque area?
Reported crime in the Albuquerque area has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 16% and property crime down 18%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 11 to 9.1 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 42 to 34 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 10%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Albuquerque areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Albuquerque area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Albuquerque area
Violent, US
Property, Albuquerque area
Property, US
2016
-17%
+4%
+26%
+15%
2017
+1%
+4%
+32%
+12%
2018
+1%
+0%
+9%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-5%
+4%
-11%
-8%
2021
+1%
+6%
-18%
-10%
2022
-2%
+5%
-10%
-6%
2023
-6%
+2%
-15%
-7%
2024
-16%
-4%
-18%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Albuquerque area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Albuquerque area has about 71 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 91% more than the US as a whole and close to New Mexico.
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.
Theft is the most common crime in the Albuquerque area, about 30% of everything reported, but assault costs more, because each one does more harm.
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 Albuquerque area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Albuquerque area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Albuquerque area, 54% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 50% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (54%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (61%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (50%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (52%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (63%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (56%)
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 Albuquerque area compares with nearby metro areas
The Albuquerque area has the most crime of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Albuquerque 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 Albuquerque area has more crime than 97% of them.
Empty homes, night lighting and density in the Albuquerque area
The Albuquerque area looks like a typical metro area on the traits that tend to go with crime.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.5.5% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 68% 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.86% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 55% 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.20% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 53% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
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 Albuquerque area: D (14 of 100).4 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 53% 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 Albuquerque area
Crime costs the Albuquerque area about $2,547 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, about double the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $937 million 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 $3.47 billion a year, or $3,766 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$248 million
$269
Rape
$30 million
$33
Robbery
$31 million
$33
Assault
$279 million
$302
Burglary
$49 million
$53
Theft
$100 million
$109
Vehicle theft
$104 million
$113
Arson
$2.5 million
$3
Vandalism
$94 million
$102
Total
$937 million
$1,017
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 Albuquerque 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 Albuquerque 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.
Schools in the Albuquerque area average a SchoolGrade of C: 33% of students test proficient, against 34% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Albuquerque area on SchoolGrade
