Lake View is a neighborhood of 87,700 residents in Chicago, about 4 miles north of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Lake View in Chicago safe?
Lake View has more crime than most of the country: an overall CrimeGrade™ of C-, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 86% of Americans live. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A- against F. Chicago as a whole grades F. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Lake View run from A- to F, so check the map below.
C-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 367 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
14% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Lake View as a whole, and 86% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Lake View scores 367.
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 Lake View, Chicago, IL at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Lake View in Chicago, 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 Lake View
Aggravated assaults are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Lake View runs 55% above the US rate, but aggravated assaults run at a small fraction of that rate: 0.34 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.6 nationally.
Burglary is a strength. Lake View grades F for property crime, but burglary grades A-.
How Lake View compares within Chicago
Safety changes a lot from one part of Lake View to the next: 21% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 60% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across Lake View run from A- to F; 2% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
21%19%60%
A or B 21%C 19%D or F 60%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Lake View has less crime than 89 of the 135 neighborhoods in Chicago. It covers much of the Lake View, Lincoln Park, and Edgewater areas and the West Ridge, Rogers Park, and Logan Square areas.
Is crime going up in Chicago?
Reported property crime in Chicago as a whole has risen 12% since 2019. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 30 to 34 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). Property crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Property crime, change since 2019
ChicagoUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Chicago. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Chicago
Property, US
2016
+6%
+15%
2017
+8%
+12%
2018
+7%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-28%
-8%
2021
-26%
-10%
2022
+3%
-6%
2023
+11%
-7%
2024
+12%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Lake View
CrimeGrade™ estimates Lake View has about 58 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 55% more than the US as a whole and 32% less than Chicago 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Lake View is theft, about 45% 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 Chicago
The Chicago Police Department polices Lake View; these figures cover Chicago as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Chicago as a whole, 68% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 69% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (68%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (75%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (69%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (48%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (65%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (51%)
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 Lake View compares with nearby neighborhoods
Lake View has more crime than 8 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods. North Center and Cuyler have the least crime nearby.
Two things set Lake View apart: it has a Walk Grade of A+ (94 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and 2.4 bars and nightlife spots for every 1,000 residents, against 0.6 nationally. It also combines many bars with dense blocks: places with both tend to report more assault and robbery than places with only one of them, 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. 99% of residents here live in walkable areas.A+ (94 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 96% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Bars and nightlifeBars, lounges, clubs and casinos. Places with more bars tend to report more assault and robbery.2.4 per 1,000 residentsUS: 0.6Higher than for 93% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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
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 Lake View: B- (48 of 100).50 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 87% 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 Lake View
Crime costs Lake View about $916 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 24% 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 $76 million a year, or $872 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 Lake View 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
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 Lake View, Chicago, IL average a SchoolGrade of A-: 57% of students test proficient, against 43% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Lake View on SchoolGrade
