Berkeley Hills is a neighborhood of 14,800 residents in Berkeley, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Berkeley Hills in Berkeley safe?
Crime in Berkeley Hills is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 62% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Berkeley Hills. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A against B-. Berkeley as a whole grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Berkeley Hills run from A to B-, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 763 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
38% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Berkeley Hills as a whole, and 62% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Berkeley Hills scores 763.
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 Berkeley Hills, Berkeley, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Berkeley Hills in Berkeley, 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 Berkeley Hills
Burglaries run above the US rate. Berkeley Hills has less crime than the US as a whole, 44% below the US rate, but more burglaries: 3.2 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.4 nationally.
Aggravated assaults are less common than in most B-graded neighborhoods. Berkeley Hills has 0.70 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a B-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 2.5.
How Berkeley Hills compares within Berkeley
Every part of Berkeley Hills where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across Berkeley Hills run from A to B-; 10% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
100%
A or B 100%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Berkeley Hills has less crime than 10 of the 12 neighborhoods in Berkeley. It covers much of the Berkeley Hills area and the North Berkeley, Kensington-San Francisco, and Thousand Oaks areas.
Is crime going up in Berkeley?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Berkeley as a whole is up 23%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.0 to 6.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 51 to 50 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 14%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
BerkeleyUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Berkeley. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Berkeley
Violent, US
Property, Berkeley
Property, US
2016
-1%
+4%
-12%
+15%
2017
+8%
+4%
-3%
+12%
2018
-5%
+0%
-14%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-13%
+4%
-12%
-8%
2021
+9%
+6%
+8%
-10%
2022
+12%
+5%
+7%
-6%
2023
+32%
+2%
+16%
-7%
2024
+23%
-4%
-0%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Berkeley Hills
CrimeGrade™ estimates Berkeley Hills has about 21 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 44% less than the US as a whole and 70% less than Berkeley 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Berkeley Hills is theft, about 50% of the total. It also makes up 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 Berkeley Hills compares with nearby neighborhoods
Berkeley Hills has less crime than 9 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods; only Kensington-San Francisco has less.
Night lighting, shops and walkability in Berkeley Hills
Two things set Berkeley Hills apart: it has 2.8 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally, and 0.1 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally. Places like that tend to report less theft and car theft, yet theft and car theft run higher here than that would suggest.
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.94% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 96% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft and car theft.2.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 92% 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. 72% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (23 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 68% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 87% 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 Berkeley Hills
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Berkeley Hills about $525 a year per household, 56% less 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 $6.5 million a year, or $439 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 Berkeley Hills 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 Berkeley Hills, Berkeley, CA average a SchoolGrade of A+: 66% of students test proficient, against 58% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Berkeley Hills on SchoolGrade
