Excelsior is a neighborhood of 34,500 residents in San Francisco, about 4 miles south of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Excelsior in San Francisco safe?
Crime in Excelsior is high, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of F. Most US neighborhoods have far less: 92% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Excelsior. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, B- against F. San Francisco as a whole grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Excelsior run from B- to F, so check the map below.
F
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 58 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
8% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Excelsior as a whole, and 92% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Excelsior scores 58.
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 Excelsior, San Francisco, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Excelsior in San Francisco, 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 Excelsior
Robbery at more than triple the US rate. Excelsior has 3.0 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
How Excelsior compares within San Francisco
High crime is widespread across Excelsior: 90% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and 3% in areas graded A or B. Grades across Excelsior run from B- to F; every part of Excelsior has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
90%
A or B 3%C 7%D or F 90%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Excelsior has less crime than 10 of the 43 neighborhoods in San Francisco. It covers much of the Excelsior, Crocker Amazon, and St Marys Park areas.
Is crime going up in San Francisco?
Reported crime in San Francisco as a whole has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 14% and property crime down 31%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 6.8 to 5.8 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 56 to 38 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 15% and property crime fell 30%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
San FranciscoUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve San Francisco. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, San Francisco
Violent, US
Property, San Francisco
Property, US
2016
+5%
+4%
-2%
+15%
2017
+6%
+4%
+12%
+12%
2018
+4%
+0%
+1%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-19%
+4%
-20%
-8%
2021
-0%
+6%
+4%
-10%
2022
-3%
+5%
+6%
-6%
2023
+0%
+2%
-2%
-7%
2024
-14%
-4%
-31%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Excelsior
CrimeGrade™ estimates Excelsior has about 44 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 18% more than the US as a whole and 33% less than San Francisco 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 36% of crime reported in Excelsior. Vehicle theft 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.
How Excelsior compares with nearby neighborhoods
Excelsior has more crime than 7 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods. Diamond Heights and Ingleside have the least crime nearby.
Two things set Excelsior apart: it has 99% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and tree cover over 2% of the land where people live, against 21% nationally. Places like that 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.99% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 91% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.2% where people liveUS: 21%Lower than for 88% 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. 62% of residents here live in walkable areas.B+ (71 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 78% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
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 Excelsior: B- (49 of 100).41 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 84% 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 Excelsior
Crime costs Excelsior about $1,891 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 57% 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 $46 million a year, or $1,341 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 Excelsior 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. Excelsior 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 Excelsior, San Francisco, CA average a SchoolGrade of D: 27% of students test proficient, against 32% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Excelsior on SchoolGrade
