The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Fitchburg, MA
Fitchburg is a city of 41,800 in Worcester County, about 20 miles north of downtown Worcester · Updated November 2026
Is Fitchburg, MA safe?
Crime in Fitchburg is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 65% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Fitchburg. Violent and property crime both grade B+ here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Fitchburg run from A+ to C-, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 743 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
35% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Fitchburg as a whole, and 65% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Fitchburg scores 743.
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 Fitchburg, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Fitchburg, 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 Fitchburg
Car thefts are less common than in most B-graded cities. Fitchburg has 1.3 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a B-graded US city, the figure is 2.9.
The safest and least safe parts of Fitchburg
Low crime is the norm across Fitchburg: 88% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Fitchburg run from A+ to C-; 27% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
88%12%
A or B 88%C 12%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Fitchburg, the northwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Fitchburg?
Reported crime in Fitchburg has held about steady since 2019: violent crime is down 9% and property crime up 1%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.4 to 4.9 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 13 to 14 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime rose 30%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
FitchburgUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Fitchburg. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Fitchburg
Violent, US
Property, Fitchburg
Property, US
2016
+43%
+4%
+56%
+15%
2017
+37%
+4%
+36%
+12%
2018
+9%
+0%
-3%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+0%
+4%
+5%
-8%
2021
-16%
+6%
-28%
-10%
2022
-16%
+5%
-43%
-6%
2023
-14%
+2%
-22%
-7%
2024
-9%
-4%
+1%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Fitchburg
CrimeGrade™ estimates Fitchburg has about 41 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 10% more than the US as a whole and 52% more than Massachusetts.
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 Fitchburg is assault, about 38% 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 Fitchburg
Fitchburg has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Fitchburg, 56% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 53% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (56%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Homes (53%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (53%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (46%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (29%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (52%)
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 Fitchburg compares with nearby cities
Fitchburg has more crime than 8 of its 9 nearest cities. Ashby and West Townsend have the least crime nearby.
Two things set Fitchburg apart: it has 35% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 6 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby. Places like that tend to report more robbery and car theft, and robbery runs high here.
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. 67% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C- (26 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 75% 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.35% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 73% 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 Fitchburg: D- (11 of 100).6 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 72% of US city residents
Show all 6
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.31 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 68% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.8.5 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 68% 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.86% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 65% 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 Fitchburg
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Fitchburg about $1,155 a year per household, 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 $56 million a year, or $1,332 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$1.6 million
$38
Rape
$1.0 million
$25
Robbery
$480,000
$11
Assault
$8.3 million
$199
Burglary
$1.0 million
$25
Theft
$2.1 million
$49
Vehicle theft
$800,000
$19
Arson
$120,000
$3
Vandalism
$3.2 million
$77
Total
$19 million
$446
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 Fitchburg 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 Fitchburg, MA average a SchoolGrade of C-: 37% of students test proficient, against 35% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Fitchburg on SchoolGrade
