The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Delano, CA
Delano is a city of 55,800 in Kern County, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Bakersfield · Updated November 2026
Is Delano, CA safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B, Delano has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 72% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent crime grades B+ and property crime B-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Delano run from A+ to D, so check the map below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 667 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
28% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Delano as a whole, and 72% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Delano scores 667.
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 Delano, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Delano, 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 Delano
Theft is a strength. Delano grades B- for property crime, but theft grades A-, better than in the neighborhoods where 51% of Americans live.
Car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Delano, 48% of reported car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks, against 27% nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Delano
Low crime is the norm across Delano: 75% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 2% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Delano run from A+ to D; 18% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
75%23%
A or B 75%C 23%D or F 2%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Delano, the northwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Delano?
Reported crime in Delano has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 13% and property crime down 48%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.9 to 3.4 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 21 to 11 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 32%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
DelanoUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Delano. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Delano
Violent, US
Property, Delano
Property, US
2016
+30%
+4%
+40%
+15%
2017
+21%
+4%
+18%
+12%
2018
+16%
+0%
+28%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-4%
+4%
-19%
-8%
2021
+1%
+6%
-16%
-10%
2022
-11%
+5%
-0%
-6%
2023
-17%
+2%
-24%
-7%
2024
-13%
-4%
-48%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Delano
CrimeGrade™ estimates Delano has about 31 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 18% less than the US as a whole and 23% less than California.
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 Delano is assault, about 31% 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.
The Delano Police Department's 2024 count of burglary fell far below its usual level, a sign of a reporting break, so CrimeGrade™ used the department's earlier years instead.
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 Delano
Delano has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Delano, 28% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 39% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (31%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (48%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (28%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (36%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (39%)
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 Delano compares with nearby cities
Delano has the most crime of its 6 nearest cities.
Two things set Delano apart: it has 55% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 6.8 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. Places where many residents live in dense blocks tend to report more robbery and car theft, and they run high here.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.55% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 86% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.6.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 82% 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. 71% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (22 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 64% of US city residents
Show all 6
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.3.6% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 80% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 72% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.34 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 63% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Delano on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
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 Delano
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Delano about $2,095 a year per household, 74% 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 $88 million a year, or $1,582 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$5.7 million
$102
Rape
$1.9 million
$34
Robbery
$1.1 million
$19
Assault
$6.9 million
$123
Burglary
$1.6 million
$28
Theft
$2.0 million
$36
Vehicle theft
$3.3 million
$60
Arson
$520,000
$9
Vandalism
$2.2 million
$39
Total
$25 million
$451
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 Delano 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. Delano 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
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 Delano, CA average a SchoolGrade of C-: 31% of students test proficient, against 24% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Delano on SchoolGrade
