Centennial is a neighborhood of 26,000 residents in Portland, about 9 miles east of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Centennial in Portland safe?
Crime in Centennial is high, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of D-. Most US neighborhoods have far less: 91% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Centennial. Violent crime grades D+ and property crime F. Portland as a whole grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Centennial run from C+ to F, so check the map below.
D-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 147 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
9% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Centennial as a whole, and 91% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Centennial scores 147.
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 Centennial, Portland, OR at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Centennial in Portland, 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 Centennial
Car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Portland as a whole, 62% of reported car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks, against 27% nationally.
Robberies run high. Centennial has robberies at more than double the US rate: 1.6 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
How Centennial compares within Portland
High crime is widespread across Centennial: 83% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Centennial run from C+ to F; every part of Centennial has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
17%83%
C 17%D or F 83%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Centennial has less crime than 12 of the 64 neighborhoods in Portland. It covers much of the Powellhurst-Gilbert, Lents, and Pleasant Valley areas and the Hazelwood-Mill Park, Montavilla, and Wilkes areas.
Is crime going up in Portland?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Portland as a whole is up 27%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.6 to 7.1 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 53 to 54 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
PortlandUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Portland. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Portland
Violent, US
Property, Portland
Property, US
2016
-10%
+4%
-2%
+15%
2017
-7%
+4%
+8%
+12%
2018
-4%
+0%
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+5%
+4%
-4%
-8%
2021
+41%
+6%
+12%
-10%
2022
+38%
+5%
+20%
-6%
2023
+29%
+2%
+10%
-7%
2024
+26%
-4%
+2%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Centennial
CrimeGrade™ estimates Centennial has about 59 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 59% more than the US as a whole and 23% less than Portland 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 Centennial, about 41% 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 Portland
The Portland Police Department polices Centennial; these figures cover Portland as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Portland as a whole, 34% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 35% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (46%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (62%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (35%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (30%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (51%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (41%)
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 Centennial compares with nearby neighborhoods
Of the 10 neighborhoods closest to Centennial, 7 have less crime. Gresham-Southwest and Pleasant Valley have the least.
Night lighting, tree cover and walkability in Centennial
One thing sets Centennial apart: it has 16 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole. Places like that tend to report less theft and robbery, yet theft and robbery 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.100% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 84% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.21% where people liveUS: 21%Higher than for 80% 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. 60% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C- (29 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 58% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.16 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 77% 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 Centennial
Crime costs Centennial about $2,277 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 89% 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 $78 million a year, or $2,998 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 Centennial 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. Centennial is the other kind of example: few people work in, shop in or visit it, so its crime per resident looks lower than its CrimeGrade™ suggests.
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 Centennial, Portland, OR average a SchoolGrade of F: 19% of students test proficient, against 29% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Centennial on SchoolGrade
