The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Charlotte, MI
Charlotte is a city of 17,300 in Eaton County, about 18 miles southwest of downtown Lansing · Updated November 2026
Is Charlotte, MI safe?
Yes. An overall CrimeGrade™ of A means crime in Charlotte is low. Most US neighborhoods have little crime too, so Charlotte sits near the middle: 55% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime, and 45% in neighborhoods with less. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, A against A-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Charlotte run from A+ to B+, so check the map below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 858 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
55% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Charlotte as a whole, and 45% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Charlotte scores 858.
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 Charlotte, MI at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Charlotte, 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 Charlotte
Reported rapes run high for an A-graded city. Charlotte has 0.93 reported rapes a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an A-graded US city, the figure is 0.25.
The safest and least safe parts of Charlotte
Every part of Charlotte where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across Charlotte run from A+ to B+; 66% 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.
Within Charlotte, the southeast side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Charlotte?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Charlotte is up 33%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.2 to 4.3 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 21 to 20 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime rose 52%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
CharlotteUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Charlotte. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Charlotte
Violent, US
Property, Charlotte
Property, US
2016
+4%
+4%
+15%
+15%
2017
-14%
+4%
+18%
+12%
2018
-13%
+0%
+33%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+5%
+4%
-6%
-8%
2021
+36%
+6%
-7%
-10%
2022
+28%
+5%
+2%
-6%
2023
-12%
+2%
-13%
-7%
2024
+32%
-4%
-6%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Charlotte
CrimeGrade™ estimates Charlotte has about 46 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 24% more than the US as a whole and 34% more than Michigan.
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 Charlotte is assault, about 43% 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.
Where and when crime happens in Charlotte
Charlotte has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 39% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Theft from cars
Homes (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (42%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (56%)
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 Charlotte compares with nearby cities
Charlotte has the most crime of its 5 nearest cities.
Parking lots, night lighting and walkability in Charlotte
Two things set Charlotte apart: it has 4.7 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally, and 54% of the land where people live lit at night, against 78% nationally. Places with a lot of parking-lot space tend to report more theft, yet theft runs lower here than that would suggest.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.4.7 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 97% of US city residents
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.54% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 85% 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. 85% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (14 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 61% of US city residents
Show all 6
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.67 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 84% 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.3% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 79% of US city residents
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 Charlotte: F (0 of 100).under 1 trip an hourUS: noneLower than for 67% 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 Charlotte
Crime costs Charlotte about $1,200 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, about the same as 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 $25 million a year, or $1,442 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$840,000
$48
Rape
$970,000
$56
Robbery
$91,000
$5
Assault
$3.6 million
$210
Burglary
$250,000
$15
Theft
$1.5 million
$85
Vehicle theft
$560,000
$33
Arson
$27,000
$2
Vandalism
$570,000
$33
Total
$8.4 million
$487
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 Charlotte 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 Charlotte, MI average a SchoolGrade of C: 36% of students test proficient, against 37% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Charlotte on SchoolGrade
