Beacon Hill is a neighborhood of 34,500 residents in Seattle, about 3 miles south of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Beacon Hill in Seattle safe?
Crime in Beacon Hill is high, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of D-. Most US neighborhoods have far less: 92% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Beacon Hill. Violent crime grades C- and property crime F. Seattle as a whole grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Beacon Hill run from B- to F, so check the map below.
D-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 127 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
8% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Beacon Hill as a whole, and 92% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Beacon Hill scores 127.
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 Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Beacon Hill in Seattle, 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 Beacon Hill
Car thefts and robberies both run high. In Beacon Hill, each runs at more than triple the US rate: 13.6 car thefts and 2.9 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 and 0.62 nationally.
How Beacon Hill compares within Seattle
High crime is widespread across Beacon Hill: 76% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and 4% in areas graded A or B. Grades across Beacon Hill run from B- to F; every part of Beacon Hill has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
20%76%
A or B 4%C 20%D or F 76%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Beacon Hill has less crime than 19 of the 67 neighborhoods in Seattle. It covers much of the Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach, and Columbia City areas.
Is crime going up in Seattle?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Seattle as a whole is up 13%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 6.7 to 7.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 50 to 49 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
SeattleUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Seattle. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Seattle
Violent, US
Property, Seattle
Property, US
2016
-9%
+4%
+9%
+15%
2017
-8%
+4%
+4%
+12%
2018
+2%
+0%
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-1%
+4%
+3%
-8%
2021
+21%
+6%
+11%
-10%
2022
+23%
+5%
+13%
-6%
2023
+16%
+2%
+0%
-7%
2024
+13%
-4%
-2%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Beacon Hill
CrimeGrade™ estimates Beacon Hill has about 71 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 91% more than the US as a whole and close to Seattle 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 is the most common crime in Beacon Hill, about 36% of everything reported, but assault 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 Seattle
The Seattle Police Department polices Beacon Hill; these figures cover Seattle as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Seattle as a whole, 47% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 33% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (47%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (49%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (33%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (31%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (46%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (35%)
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 Beacon Hill compares with nearby neighborhoods
Beacon Hill has less crime than 6 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Transit, tree cover and walkability in Beacon Hill
Two things set Beacon Hill apart: it has 58 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby, and 4.7 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 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 Beacon Hill: C+ (44 of 100).58 trips an hourUS: noneHigher 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.23% where people liveUS: 21%Higher than for 84% 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.C+ (47 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 61% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft and car theft.4.7 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 81% 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 Beacon Hill
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Beacon Hill about $2,697 a year per household, more than double 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 $105 million a year, or $3,057 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 Beacon Hill 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 Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA average a SchoolGrade of B-: 49% of students test proficient, against 44% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Beacon Hill on SchoolGrade
