The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Auburn, WA
Auburn is a city of 91,300 in King County, about 20 miles south of downtown Seattle · Updated November 2026
Is Auburn, WA safe?
Crime in Auburn is high by national standards, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of C+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 81% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Auburn. Violent crime grades B- and property crime C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Auburn run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
C+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 517 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
19% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Auburn as a whole, and 81% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Auburn scores 517.
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 Auburn, WA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Auburn, 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 Auburn
Reported rape stands out among C-graded cities. For the typical resident of a C-graded US city, the figure is 0.30 reported rapes a year per 1,000 residents; Auburn has 0.79.
Vehicle theft at more than triple the US rate. Auburn has 11.2 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Auburn
Crime varies widely across Auburn: 47% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 37% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Auburn run from A+ to F; 10% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
47%16%37%
A or B 47%C 16%D or F 37%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Auburn, the southeast side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Auburn?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Auburn is up 13%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.6 to 5.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 38 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 12% and property crime fell 26%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
AuburnUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police agencies that serve Auburn. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Auburn
Violent, US
Property, Auburn
Property, US
2016
-10%
+4%
+22%
+15%
2017
-1%
+4%
+20%
+12%
2018
-5%
+0%
+8%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-12%
+4%
+3%
-8%
2021
-9%
+6%
+15%
-10%
2022
+7%
+5%
+35%
-6%
2023
+28%
+2%
+37%
-7%
2024
+13%
-4%
+2%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Auburn
CrimeGrade™ estimates Auburn has about 65 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 76% more than the US as a whole and 45% more than Washington.
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 Auburn, about 31% of everything reported.
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 Auburn
Auburn has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Auburn, 27% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 55% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (64%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (59%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Parking lots and garages (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (52%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (46%)
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 Auburn compares with nearby cities
Of the 10 cities closest to Auburn, 8 have less crime. Lake Tapps and Lake Morton-Berrydale have the least.
Two things set Auburn apart: it has 14 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby, and 4.2% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery, and they run high here.
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 Auburn: D (18 of 100).14 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 89% 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.33% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 71% 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. 80% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (18 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 52% of US city residents
Show all 6
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.4.2% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 71% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.2.2 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 69% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.47 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 57% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Auburn 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 Auburn
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Auburn about $2,348 a year per household, 95% 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 $231 million a year, or $2,535 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$16 million
$178
Rape
$4.3 million
$47
Robbery
$3.6 million
$39
Assault
$15 million
$159
Burglary
$4.0 million
$43
Theft
$9.4 million
$103
Vehicle theft
$16 million
$172
Arson
$450,000
$5
Vandalism
$8.4 million
$92
Total
$77 million
$839
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 Auburn 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 Auburn, WA average a SchoolGrade of D: 39% of students test proficient, against 34% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Auburn on SchoolGrade
