The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Blue Island, IL
Blue Island is a city of 21,500 in Cook County, about 16 miles south of downtown Chicago · Updated November 2026
Is Blue Island, IL safe?
Blue Island has more crime than most of the country: an overall CrimeGrade™ of C, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 85% of Americans live. Violent crime grades C and property crime C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Blue Island run from B to F, so check the map below.
C
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 423 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
15% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Blue Island as a whole, and 85% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Blue Island scores 423.
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 Blue Island, IL at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Blue Island, 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 Blue Island
Burglaries run high for a C-graded city. Blue Island has 6.3 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a C-graded US city, the figure is 2.5.
Vehicle theft at about triple the US rate. Blue Island has 8.1 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Blue Island
Areas graded C are home to 57% of residents in Blue Island; 10% live in areas graded A or B and 33% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Blue Island run from B to F; every part of Blue Island has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
10%57%33%
A or B 10%C 57%D or F 33%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Blue Island, the west side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Blue Island?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Blue Island is down 23% and property crime is up 81%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.6 to 4.3 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 15 to 26 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 11%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Blue IslandUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Blue Island. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Blue Island
Violent, US
Property, Blue Island
Property, US
2016
-12%
+4%
+66%
+15%
2017
+24%
+4%
+25%
+12%
2018
-27%
+0%
-13%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+31%
+4%
+25%
-8%
2021
-20%
+6%
+59%
-10%
2022
+6%
+5%
+99%
-6%
2023
-15%
+2%
+105%
-7%
2024
-23%
-4%
+81%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Blue Island
CrimeGrade™ estimates Blue Island has about 53 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 44% more than the US as a whole and 26% more than Illinois.
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 Blue Island, about 24% 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 Blue Island
Blue Island has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Blue Island, 46% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 49% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (46%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (46%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (49%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (41%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (53%)
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 Blue Island compares with nearby cities
Blue Island has less crime than 5 of its 10 nearest cities.
Night lighting, walkability and density in Blue Island
Two things set Blue Island apart: it has a Walk Grade of B- (48 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and 64% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report more theft and assault, and they run high here.
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.100% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 92% 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.B- (48 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 91% 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.64% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 89% of US city residents
Show all 6
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 Blue Island: C- (30 of 100).10 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 85% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.6.7 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 83% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.23 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 82% of US city residents
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 Blue Island
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Blue Island about $1,908 a year per household, 58% 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 $51 million a year, or $2,375 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$4.0 million
$186
Rape
$670,000
$31
Robbery
$700,000
$33
Assault
$3.2 million
$149
Burglary
$1.2 million
$57
Theft
$1.4 million
$63
Vehicle theft
$2.7 million
$124
Arson
$44,000
$2
Vandalism
$1.8 million
$85
Total
$16 million
$731
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 Blue Island 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 Blue Island, IL average a SchoolGrade of D-: 29% of students test proficient, against 15% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Blue Island on SchoolGrade
