The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Laurel, MD
Laurel is a city of 43,300 in Prince George's County, about 17 miles northeast of downtown Washington · Updated November 2026
Is Laurel, MD safe?
Crime in Laurel is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B-. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 76% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Laurel. Violent crime grades B+ and property crime C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Laurel run from A to F, so check the map below.
B-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 612 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
24% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Laurel as a whole, and 76% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Laurel scores 612.
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 Laurel, MD at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Laurel, 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 Laurel
Burglaries are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Laurel runs 57% above the US rate, but burglaries run 26% below it: 1.8 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.4 nationally.
Car thefts run high for a B-graded city. Laurel has 7.3 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 Laurel
In Laurel, 59% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 25% in areas graded C and 16% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Laurel run from A to F; 12% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
59%25%16%
A or B 59%C 25%D or F 16%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Laurel, the northwest side has the least crime and the east side the most.
Is crime going up in Laurel?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Laurel is down 20% and property crime is up 36%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.8 to 3.9 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 35 to 47 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 40%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
LaurelUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Laurel. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Laurel
Violent, US
Property, Laurel
Property, US
2016
-12%
+4%
+13%
+15%
2017
+28%
+4%
+5%
+12%
2018
-7%
+0%
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-26%
+4%
-31%
-8%
2021
-23%
+6%
-25%
-10%
2022
-19%
+5%
-4%
-6%
2023
+34%
+2%
+27%
-7%
2024
-20%
-4%
+36%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Laurel
CrimeGrade™ estimates Laurel has about 58 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 57% more than the US as a whole and 41% more than Maryland.
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 Laurel, about 46% 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 Laurel
Laurel has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Laurel, 53% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 60% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (53%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (64%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (60%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Parking lots and garages (50%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Robbery
Parking lots and garages (38%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (38%)
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 Laurel compares with nearby cities
Laurel has more crime than 7 of its 10 nearest cities. Fulton and Annapolis Junction have the least crime nearby.
Two things set Laurel apart: it has 70 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole, and 8 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby. Places with both tend to report more theft and robbery than places with only one of them, and they run high here.
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.70 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 85% 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 Laurel: D (16 of 100).8 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 80% 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. 67% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (24 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 70% of US city residents
Show all 6
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.40% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 76% 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.4.0% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 74% 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.99% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 68% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Laurel 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 Laurel
Crime costs Laurel about $1,587 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 32% more 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 $73 million a year, or $1,689 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$5.1 million
$118
Rape
$650,000
$15
Robbery
$1.4 million
$33
Assault
$3.8 million
$88
Burglary
$680,000
$16
Theft
$6.0 million
$139
Vehicle theft
$4.9 million
$113
Arson
$48,000
$1
Vandalism
$4.3 million
$100
Total
$27 million
$623
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 Laurel 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 Laurel, MD average a SchoolGrade of C: 35% of students test proficient, against 31% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Laurel on SchoolGrade
