The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Holyoke, MA
Holyoke is a city of 37,800 in Hampden County, about 7 miles north of downtown Springfield · Updated November 2026
Is Holyoke, MA safe?
Crime in Holyoke is high by national standards, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of C+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 83% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Holyoke. Violent and property crime both grade C+ here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Holyoke run from A to F, so check the map below.
C+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 487 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
17% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Holyoke as a whole, and 83% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Holyoke scores 487.
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 Holyoke, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Holyoke, 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 Holyoke
Reported rape stands out among C-graded cities. For the typical resident of a C-graded US city, the figure is 0.30 reported rapes a year per 1,000 residents; Holyoke has 0.79.
Aggravated assaults and simple assaults both run high. In Holyoke, each runs at about triple the US rate: 8.2 aggravated assaults and 30.2 simple assaults a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.6 and 9.7 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Holyoke
Crime varies widely across Holyoke: 46% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 45% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Holyoke run from A to F; 9% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
46%45%
A or B 46%C 9%D or F 45%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Holyoke, the southwest side has the least crime and the east side the most.
Is crime going up in Holyoke?
Reported crime in Holyoke has risen since 2019: violent crime is up 22% and property crime up 15%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 8.6 to 11 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 37 to 43 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
HolyokeUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Holyoke. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Holyoke
Violent, US
Property, Holyoke
Property, US
2016
+26%
+4%
+34%
+15%
2017
+27%
+4%
+30%
+12%
2018
+13%
+0%
+9%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+10%
+4%
-12%
-8%
2021
+13%
+6%
-8%
-10%
2022
+12%
+5%
+0%
-6%
2023
+15%
+2%
+23%
-7%
2024
+22%
-4%
+15%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Holyoke
CrimeGrade™ estimates Holyoke has about 103 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, more than double the rate for the US as a whole and more than triple the rate for 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 Holyoke is assault, about 37% 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 Holyoke
Holyoke has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Holyoke, 66% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 42% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (66%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (35%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (42%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (44%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (44%)
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 Holyoke compares with nearby cities
Holyoke has more crime than 8 of its 10 nearest cities. Southampton and Ludlow Center have the least crime nearby.
Two things set Holyoke apart: it has a Walk Grade of C+ (42 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and 47% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. It also combines many jobs with busy transit: places with both tend to report more theft and robbery than places with only one of them, and they run 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.C+ (42 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 88% 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.47% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 82% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.13.9 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 82% 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 Holyoke: C- (30 of 100).7 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 79% of US city residents
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.8.3% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 74% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.58 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 74% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Holyoke 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 Holyoke
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Holyoke about $2,634 a year per household, about double 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 $117 million a year, or $3,093 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$4.3 million
$114
Rape
$1.8 million
$48
Robbery
$1.7 million
$45
Assault
$17 million
$455
Burglary
$1.5 million
$39
Theft
$6.7 million
$177
Vehicle theft
$2.3 million
$61
Arson
$130,000
$4
Vandalism
$5.2 million
$136
Total
$41 million
$1,078
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 Holyoke 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 Holyoke, MA average a SchoolGrade of F: 18% of students test proficient, against 24% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Holyoke on SchoolGrade
