Capitol Hill is a neighborhood of 43,900 residents in Seattle, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Capitol Hill in Seattle safe?
Crime in Capitol Hill is high, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of F. Most US neighborhoods have far less: 95% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Capitol Hill. Violent crime grades C and property crime F. Seattle as a whole grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Capitol Hill run from B to F, so check the map below.
F
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 0 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
5% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Capitol Hill as a whole, and 95% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Capitol Hill scores 0.
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 Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Capitol 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 Capitol Hill
Burglaries run high for an F-graded neighborhood. Capitol Hill has 16.5 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an F-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 4.6.
Robberies run high. Capitol Hill has robberies at more than triple the US rate: 3.1 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
How Capitol Hill compares within Seattle
High crime is widespread across Capitol Hill: 87% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and 2% in areas graded A or B. Grades across Capitol Hill run from B to F; every part of Capitol Hill has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
11%87%
A or B 2%C 11%D or F 87%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Capitol Hill has less crime than 5 of the 67 neighborhoods in Seattle. It covers much of the Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Downtown Seattle 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 Capitol Hill
CrimeGrade™ estimates Capitol Hill has about 96 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, more than double the rate for the US as a whole and 26% more than 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 makes up about 37% of crime reported in Capitol Hill. Assault is less common but costs more, because each one does 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 Capitol 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 Capitol Hill compares with nearby neighborhoods
Of the 10 neighborhoods closest to Capitol Hill, 8 have less crime. Montlake and Madrona have the least.
Transit, nightlife and walkability in Capitol Hill
Two things set Capitol Hill apart: it has 95 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby, and 3.1 bars and nightlife spots for every 1,000 residents, against 0.6 nationally. Places like that 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 Capitol Hill: B (56 of 100).95 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 96% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Bars and nightlifeBars, lounges, clubs and casinos. Places with more bars tend to report more assault and robbery.3.1 per 1,000 residentsUS: 0.6Higher than for 95% 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. 88% of residents here live in walkable areas.A (87 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 89% 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 88% 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 Capitol Hill
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Capitol Hill about $1,843 a year per household, 53% 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 $128 million a year, or $2,914 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 Capitol 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 Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA average a SchoolGrade of A: 60% of students test proficient, against 54% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Capitol Hill on SchoolGrade
