The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Atwater, CA
Atwater is a city of 42,700 in Merced County, about 7 miles northwest of downtown Merced · Updated November 2026
Is Atwater, CA safe?
Crime in Atwater is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 74% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Atwater. Violent crime grades B and property crime B-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Atwater run from A+ to D, so check the map below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 642 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
26% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Atwater as a whole, and 74% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Atwater scores 642.
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 Atwater, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Atwater, 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 Atwater
Aggravated assault at about double the US rate. Atwater has 5.0 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.6 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Atwater
Safety changes a lot from one part of Atwater to the next: 43% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 20% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across Atwater run from A+ to D; 11% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
43%37%20%
A or B 43%C 37%D or F 20%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Atwater, the southwest side has the least crime and the north side the most.
Is crime going up in Atwater?
Reported violent crime in Atwater peaked in 2022 and has fallen 16% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 35% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 6.8 to 7.1 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 34 to 22 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime rose 15% and property crime fell 10%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
AtwaterUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Atwater. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Atwater
Violent, US
Property, Atwater
Property, US
2016
+1%
+4%
+0%
+15%
2017
-8%
+4%
-7%
+12%
2018
-12%
+0%
-11%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-29%
+4%
-17%
-8%
2021
+6%
+6%
-23%
-10%
2022
+25%
+5%
-26%
-6%
2023
-9%
+2%
-27%
-7%
2024
+5%
-4%
-35%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Atwater
CrimeGrade™ estimates Atwater has about 47 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 25% more than the US as a whole and 17% more than California.
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 Atwater, about 33% 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 Atwater
Atwater has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Atwater, 44% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 33% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (44%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Homes (38%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (33%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (46%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
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; they are over one in five for burglary, theft from cars.
How Atwater compares with nearby cities
Atwater has more crime than 4 of its 5 nearest cities. Buhach and Delhi have the least crime nearby.
Two things set Atwater apart: it has 2.1% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally, and 6.4 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. Places like that tend to report less burglary, vandalism and arson, yet burglary, vandalism and arson run higher here than that would suggest.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.2.1% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 95% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.6.4 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 85% of US city residents
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. 84% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (16 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 55% of US city residents
Show all 6
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.27 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 76% of US city residents
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.90% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 61% of US city residents
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%Higher than for 58% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Atwater on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
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 Atwater
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Atwater about $2,051 a year per household, 70% 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 $84 million a year, or $1,980 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$4.0 million
$93
Rape
$1.4 million
$32
Robbery
$850,000
$20
Assault
$9.2 million
$215
Burglary
$1.1 million
$25
Theft
$3.3 million
$78
Vehicle theft
$3.1 million
$74
Arson
$490,000
$11
Vandalism
$2.2 million
$51
Total
$26 million
$599
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 Atwater 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
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 Atwater, CA average a SchoolGrade of D+: 28% of students test proficient, against 27% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Atwater on SchoolGrade
