The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Little Rock, AR
The Little Rock metro area, the 81st-largest in the US, is home to 758,600 residents; Little Rock itself is the capital and largest city of Arkansas · Updated November 2026
Is Little Rock, AR safe?
Crime in the Little Rock area is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 70% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than the Little Rock area. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, B+ against B. The city of Little Rock itself grades D+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Little Rock area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 688 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
30% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Little Rock area as a whole, and 70% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Little Rock area scores 688.
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 Little Rock, AR at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Little Rock area, 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 the Little Rock area
One part of Little Rock stands out for burglary. Burglaries in Oak Forest, Stephens & Boyle Park, in central Little Rock, run at more than double the rate in the rest of the city.
Aggravated assault stands out among B-graded metro areas. For the typical resident of a B-graded US metro area, the figure is 2.8 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; the Little Rock area has 6.8.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Little Rock area
Safety changes a lot from one part of the Little Rock area to the next: 73% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 20% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Little Rock area run from A+ to F; 36% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
73%20%
A or B 73%C 7%D or F 20%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
7Oak Forest, Stephens & Boyle Park, centralAggravated assaults run at more than double the rate in the rest of Little Rock.F0
8Downtown Little Rock & Central High, eastBurglaries run at more than double the rate in the rest of Little Rock.F0
9Upper Baseline & Wakefield, southRobberies run at more than double the rate in the rest of Little Rock.F0
Neighborhood areas of the city of Little Rock, ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer). Each one combines several of the smaller areas on the map.
Cities and towns in the Little Rock metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Across the area, the Maumelle and Greenbrier areas have the least crime and the downtown Little Rock area the most.
Is crime going up in the Little Rock area?
Reported violent crime in the Little Rock area peaked in 2021 and has fallen 15% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 17% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 7.9 to 8.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 36 to 30 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Little Rock areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Little Rock area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Little Rock area
Violent, US
Property, Little Rock area
Property, US
2016
-4%
+4%
+19%
+15%
2017
+2%
+4%
+14%
+12%
2018
-6%
+0%
+6%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+19%
+4%
-12%
-8%
2021
+28%
+6%
-9%
-10%
2022
+15%
+5%
-9%
-6%
2023
+14%
+2%
-15%
-7%
2024
+9%
-4%
-17%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Little Rock area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Little Rock area has about 68 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 82% more than the US as a whole and 42% more than Arkansas.
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 the Little Rock area, about 31% of everything reported, but murder costs more, because each one does far 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 the Little Rock area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Little Rock area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Little Rock area, 59% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 39% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (59%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (48%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (39%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (51%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (59%)
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 the Little Rock area compares with nearby metro areas
Of the 10 metro areas closest to the Little Rock area, 9 have less crime. The Jackson area and the Tulsa area have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Little Rock area. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Little Rock area has more crime than 91% of them.
Density, empty homes and night lighting in the Little Rock area
One thing sets the Little Rock area apart: it has 5% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery and car theft, yet robbery runs higher here than that would suggest.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.5% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 93% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.8.7% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 89% of Americans in metro areas
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 85% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the Little Rock area: D- (6 of 100).1 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 81% of Americans in metro areas
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 the Little Rock area
Crime costs the Little Rock area about $2,171 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 80% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $663 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $2.39 billion a year, or $3,144 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$148 million
$195
Rape
$31 million
$41
Robbery
$21 million
$28
Aggravated assault
$147 million
$194
Simple assault
$109 million
$144
Burglary
$33 million
$44
Theft
$83 million
$109
Vehicle theft
$33 million
$43
Arson
$2.8 million
$4
Vandalism
$55 million
$73
Total
$663 million
$874
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 the Little Rock area 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. These figures cover the whole Little Rock metro area. 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 the Little Rock area average a SchoolGrade of C+: 34% of students test proficient, against 35% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Little Rock area on SchoolGrade
