The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Great Falls, MT
Great Falls is the third-largest city in Montana, with 69,500 residents in Cascade County · Updated November 2026
Is Great Falls, MT safe?
Yes, crime in Great Falls is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A-. Because most US neighborhoods are safe as well, Great Falls sits near the middle: safer than the neighborhoods where 43% of Americans live. Violent crime grades A- and property crime B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Great Falls run from A+ to C, so check the map below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 801 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
43% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Great Falls as a whole, and 57% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Great Falls scores 801.
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 Great Falls, MT at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Great Falls, 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 Great Falls
Robberies are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Great Falls runs 48% above the US rate, but robberies run 39% below it: 0.38 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
Aggravated assaults run high for an A-graded city. Great Falls has 4.4 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an A-graded US city, the figure is 1.2.
The safest and least safe parts of Great Falls
Low crime is the norm across Great Falls: 93% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Great Falls run from A+ to C; 33% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
93%
A or B 93%C 7%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Great Falls, the southwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Great Falls?
Since 2019, reported property crime in Great Falls is down 41%, while violent crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.4 to 5.9 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 59 to 35 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 26%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Great FallsUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Great Falls. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Great Falls
Violent, US
Property, Great Falls
Property, US
2016
-47%
+4%
-15%
+15%
2017
-24%
+4%
-12%
+12%
2018
+14%
+0%
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-13%
+4%
-14%
-8%
2021
+2%
+6%
-21%
-10%
2022
-7%
+5%
-24%
-6%
2023
+8%
+2%
-20%
-7%
2024
+10%
-4%
-41%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Great Falls
CrimeGrade™ estimates Great Falls has about 55 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 48% more than the US as a whole and 56% more than Montana.
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 is the most common crime in Great Falls, about 45% of everything reported, but assault 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.
Where and when crime happens in Great Falls
Great Falls has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Great Falls, 49% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 41% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (49%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (37%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (38%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (48%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (53%)
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 Great Falls compares with nearby cities
Great Falls has the most crime of its 4 nearest cities.
Transit, parking lots and walkability in Great Falls
One thing sets Great Falls apart: it has 2.8 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally. Places like that tend to report more theft, and it runs high here.
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 Great Falls: F (0 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 84% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.2.8 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher 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. 69% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (24 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 70% of US city residents
Show all 6
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.12.5 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 73% 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.9% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 62% 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.89% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 61% 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 Great Falls
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Great Falls about $1,255 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 $97 million a year, or $1,401 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$960,000
$14
Rape
$3.2 million
$46
Robbery
$820,000
$12
Assault
$14 million
$198
Burglary
$2.2 million
$32
Theft
$8.8 million
$127
Vehicle theft
$2.1 million
$31
Arson
$350,000
$5
Vandalism
$4.4 million
$63
Total
$37 million
$526
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 Great Falls 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 Great Falls, MT average a SchoolGrade of B: 42% of students test proficient, against 37% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Great Falls on SchoolGrade
