The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in El Paso, TX
The El Paso metro area, the 67th-largest in the US, is home to 874,200 residents · Updated November 2026
Is El Paso, TX safe?
Yes, crime in the El Paso area is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A-. Because most US neighborhoods are safe as well, the El Paso area sits near the middle: safer than the neighborhoods where 43% of Americans live. Violent and property crime both grade A- here. The city of El Paso itself grades B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the El Paso area run from A+ to D+, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 802 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
43% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the El Paso area as a whole, and 57% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The El Paso area scores 802.
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 El Paso, TX at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the El Paso area, 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 the El Paso area
One part of El Paso stands out for burglary. Burglaries in Sunset Heights, in southwest El Paso, run at about triple the rate in the rest of the city.
Robberies are uncommon. The El Paso area has robberies at about half the US rate: 0.33 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the El Paso area
Low crime is the norm across the El Paso area: 97% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across the El Paso area run from A+ to D+; 19% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
97%
A or B 97%C 3%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of El Paso
1Northwest, northwestAggravated assaults run about 30% lower here than in the rest of El Paso.A-812
2East Side, southeastCar thefts run about 40% lower here than in the rest of El Paso.A-800
3Las Tierras, eastBurglaries run about 40% lower here than in the rest of El Paso.A-799
4Northeast, northRobberies run about 90% higher here than in the rest of El Paso.B+755
5Album Park & Cielo Vista South, centralRobberies run about 40% lower here than in the rest of El Paso.B+752
7Central, westBurglaries run about 80% higher here than in the rest of El Paso.B643
8Sunset Heights, southwestAggravated assaults run at more than double the rate in the rest of El Paso.C+502
Neighborhood areas of the city of El Paso, ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer). Each one combines several of the smaller areas on the map.
Cities and towns in the El Paso metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Across the area, the Horizon City, Socorro, and San Elizario areas have the least crime and the west side the most.
Is crime going up in the El Paso area?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in the El Paso area is down 21%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.4 to 2.7 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 14 to 13 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 10%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
El Paso areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the El Paso area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, El Paso area
Violent, US
Property, El Paso area
Property, US
2016
+8%
+4%
+20%
+15%
2017
+6%
+4%
+18%
+12%
2018
+2%
+0%
-1%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-10%
+4%
-19%
-8%
2021
-25%
+6%
-19%
-10%
2022
-10%
+5%
-11%
-6%
2023
-12%
+2%
+1%
-7%
2024
-21%
-4%
-6%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the El Paso area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the El Paso area has about 35 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 6% less than the US as a whole and 17% less than Texas.
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 the El Paso area, about 41% of everything reported, and it also accounts for 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 the El Paso area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the El Paso area, 2022 to 2024.
In the El Paso area, 57% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 44% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (57%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (44%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (44%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (47%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (49%)
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 the El Paso area compares with nearby metro areas
The El Paso area has the least crime of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the El Paso area. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the El Paso area is safer than 51% of them.
Night lighting, empty homes and density in the El Paso area
The El Paso area looks like a typical metro area on the traits that tend to go with crime.
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.98% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 93% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.6.7% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 63% of Americans in metro areas
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.28% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 61% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the El Paso area: D (13 of 100).4 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 56% of Americans in metro areas
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 the El Paso area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the El Paso area about $1,165 a year per household, about the same as the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $346 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $1.05 billion a year, or $1,200 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$57 million
$65
Rape
$20 million
$23
Robbery
$8.9 million
$10
Assault
$133 million
$153
Burglary
$11 million
$13
Theft
$44 million
$51
Vehicle theft
$34 million
$39
Arson
$2.0 million
$2
Vandalism
$36 million
$41
Total
$346 million
$396
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 the El Paso area 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. These figures cover the whole El Paso metro area. 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 the El Paso area average a SchoolGrade of C+: 45% of students test proficient, against 29% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in the El Paso area on SchoolGrade
