The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Bakersfield, CA
The Bakersfield metro area, the 62nd-largest in the US, is home to 915,100 residents · Updated November 2026
Is Bakersfield, CA safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B, the Bakersfield area has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 71% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent and property crime both grade B here. The city of Bakersfield itself grades C+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Bakersfield area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 686 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
29% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Bakersfield area as a whole, and 71% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Bakersfield area scores 686.
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 Bakersfield, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield area
One part of Bakersfield stands out for robbery. Robberies in Lakeview-Bakersfield, Oakridge & Tyner Homes, in east Bakersfield, run at about triple the rate in the rest of the city.
Car thefts run high. The Bakersfield area has car thefts at more than double the US rate: 6.0 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Bakersfield area
Safety changes a lot from one part of the Bakersfield area to the next: 54% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 29% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Bakersfield area run from A+ to F; 19% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
54%17%29%
A or B 54%C 17%D or F 29%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Bakersfield
1Stockdale Greens, Villages of Brimhall-Brim. Classics & Stockdale Estates, westCar thefts run at less than half the rate in the rest of Bakersfield.A-825
2Rosedale, Emerald Estates & Fruitvale, northwestCar thefts run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Bakersfield.A-813
3Laurelglen, Silver Creek & The Oaks, southwestAggravated assaults run at less than half the rate in the rest of Bakersfield.A-802
4Rexland Acres, southeastBurglaries run about 30% lower here than in the rest of Bakersfield.B-611
Neighborhood areas of the city of Bakersfield, 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 Bakersfield 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 Ridgecrest area has the least crime and the downtown Bakersfield area the most.
Is crime going up in the Bakersfield area?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in the Bakersfield area is up 14% and property crime is down 32%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 6.2 to 7.1 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 33 to 22 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 12% and property crime fell 19%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Bakersfield areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Bakersfield area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Bakersfield area
Violent, US
Property, Bakersfield area
Property, US
2016
-6%
+4%
+12%
+15%
2017
-9%
+4%
-1%
+12%
2018
-4%
+0%
+3%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+11%
+4%
-6%
-8%
2021
+40%
+6%
-2%
-10%
2022
+20%
+5%
-1%
-6%
2023
+30%
+2%
-16%
-7%
2024
+14%
-4%
-32%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Bakersfield area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Bakersfield area has about 45 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 21% more than the US as a whole and close to 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.
Assault is the most common crime in the Bakersfield area, about 32% of everything reported, and it also accounts for the largest share of what crime costs here.
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.
How the Bakersfield area compares with nearby metro areas
Of the 10 metro areas closest to the Bakersfield area, 6 have less crime. The Oxnard area and the San Diego area have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield area has more crime than 92% of them.
Empty homes, transit and density in the Bakersfield area
The Bakersfield 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.5.2% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 74% of Americans in metro areas
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 Bakersfield area: D (14 of 100).3 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 66% 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.32% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 66% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
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%Higher than for 63% 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 Bakersfield area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Bakersfield area about $2,292 a year per household, 90% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $645 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 $2.37 billion a year, or $2,588 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$150 million
$164
Rape
$28 million
$30
Robbery
$32 million
$35
Assault
$202 million
$221
Burglary
$41 million
$45
Theft
$53 million
$58
Vehicle theft
$85 million
$93
Arson
$17 million
$18
Vandalism
$37 million
$41
Total
$645 million
$705
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 Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield area average a SchoolGrade of D: 28% of students test proficient, against 26% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Bakersfield area on SchoolGrade
