The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Gardner, MA
Gardner is a city of 21,400 in Worcester County, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Worcester · Updated November 2026
Is Gardner, MA safe?
Yes. An overall CrimeGrade™ of A means crime in Gardner is low. Most US neighborhoods have little crime too, so Gardner sits near the middle: 60% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime, and 40% in neighborhoods with less. Violent and property crime both grade A here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Gardner run from A+ to B+, so check the map below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 878 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
60% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Gardner as a whole, and 40% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Gardner scores 878.
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 Gardner, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Gardner, 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 Gardner
Aggravated assault is the exception. Gardner grades A for violent crime, but aggravated assault grades B, worse than in the neighborhoods where 76% of Americans live.
Burglaries and thefts both run low. In Gardner, each runs at less than half the US rate: 0.99 burglaries and 5.7 thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.4 and 13.1 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Gardner
Every part of Gardner where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across Gardner run from A+ to B+; 81% 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 Gardner, the east side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Gardner?
Reported violent crime in Gardner peaked in 2020 and has fallen 25% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 58% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.4 to 3.3 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 15 to 6.2 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime rose 25% and property crime fell 18%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
GardnerUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Gardner. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Gardner
Violent, US
Property, Gardner
Property, US
2016
+261%
+4%
+66%
+15%
2017
+40%
+4%
+8%
+12%
2018
+30%
+0%
+18%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+28%
+4%
-19%
-8%
2021
-10%
+6%
-35%
-10%
2022
-40%
+5%
-42%
-6%
2023
-23%
+2%
-49%
-7%
2024
-4%
-4%
-58%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Gardner
CrimeGrade™ estimates Gardner has about 20 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 46% less than the US as a whole and 25% less 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.
Assault is the most common crime in Gardner, about 40% 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 Gardner
Gardner has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Gardner, 57% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (57%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (54%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (54%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Gardner compares with nearby cities
Of the 6 cities closest to Gardner, 5 have less crime. Hubbardston and Templeton have the least.
Gardner looks like a typical city 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.70% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 78% 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. 62% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C- (26 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 75% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.9.4 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 60% of US city residents
Show all 6
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 Gardner: D- (9 of 100).3 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 59% 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.20% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 58% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.39 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 55% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Gardner 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 Gardner
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Gardner about $589 a year per household, 51% less 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 $18 million a year, or $838 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$340,000
$16
Rape
$410,000
$19
Robbery
$68,000
$3
Assault
$2.7 million
$126
Burglary
$190,000
$9
Theft
$620,000
$29
Vehicle theft
$220,000
$10
Arson
$34,000
$2
Vandalism
$630,000
$29
Total
$5.2 million
$243
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 Gardner 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 Gardner, MA average a SchoolGrade of C: 40% of students test proficient, against 40% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Gardner on SchoolGrade
