Armour Square is a neighborhood of 13,800 residents in Chicago, about 3 miles south of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Armour Square in Chicago safe?
Armour Square has more crime than most of the country: an overall CrimeGrade™ of C-, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 87% of Americans live. Violent crime grades C and property crime D+. Chicago as a whole grades F. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Armour Square run from C+ to F, so check the map below.
C-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 354 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
13% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Armour Square as a whole, and 87% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Armour Square scores 354.
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 Armour Square, Chicago, IL at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Armour Square in Chicago, 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 Armour Square
Aggravated assaults are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Armour Square runs at about double the US rate, but aggravated assaults run at less than half that rate: 0.93 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.6 nationally.
Robberies run high for a C-graded neighborhood. Armour Square has 6.3 robberies a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a C-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 1.3.
How Armour Square compares within Chicago
Areas graded C are home to 53% of residents in Armour Square; 0% live in areas graded A or B and 47% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Armour Square run from C+ to F; every part of Armour Square has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
53%47%
C 53%D or F 47%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Armour Square has less crime than 85 of the 135 neighborhoods in Chicago. It covers much of the Near North Side, Hyde Park, and Near South Side areas.
Is crime going up in Chicago?
Reported property crime in Chicago as a whole has risen 12% since 2019. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 30 to 34 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). Property crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Property crime, change since 2019
ChicagoUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Chicago. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Chicago
Property, US
2016
+6%
+15%
2017
+8%
+12%
2018
+7%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-28%
-8%
2021
-26%
-10%
2022
+3%
-6%
2023
+11%
-7%
2024
+12%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Armour Square
CrimeGrade™ estimates Armour Square has about 76 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about double the rate for the US as a whole and close to Chicago as a whole.
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 makes up about 30% of crime reported in Armour Square. Robbery is less common but costs more, because each one does far 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 Chicago
The Chicago Police Department polices Armour Square; these figures cover Chicago as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Chicago as a whole, 68% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 69% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (68%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (75%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (69%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (48%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (65%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (51%)
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 Armour Square compares with nearby neighborhoods
Armour Square has less crime than 6 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Shops, tree cover and walkability in Armour Square
Two things set Armour Square apart: it has 21.6 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally, and tree cover over 2% of the land where people live, against 21% nationally. Places like that tend to report more theft and car theft, and they run high here.
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft and car theft.21.6 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 90% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.2% where people liveUS: 21%Lower than for 89% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 81% of residents here live in walkable areas.A- (78 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 83% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Armour Square: C+ (40 of 100).39 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 83% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 Armour Square
Crime costs Armour Square about $2,313 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 92% more than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $34 million a year, or $2,491 per resident.
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 Armour Square 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. 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 Armour Square, Chicago, IL average a SchoolGrade of D: 29% of students test proficient, against 25% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Armour Square on SchoolGrade
