The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Madera, CA
Madera is a city of 87,800 in Madera County, about 20 miles northwest of downtown Fresno · Updated November 2026
Is Madera, CA safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, Madera has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 64% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent and property crime both grade B+ here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Madera run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 750 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
36% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Madera as a whole, and 64% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Madera scores 750.
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 Madera, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Madera, 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 Madera
Arson stands out among B-graded cities. For the typical resident of a B-graded US city, the figure is 0.11 arsons a year per 1,000 residents; Madera has 0.63.
Car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Madera, 64% of reported car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks, against 27% nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Madera
Most of Madera grades well: 58% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 3% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Madera run from A+ to F; 10% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
58%39%
A or B 58%C 39%D or F 3%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Madera, the southwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Madera?
Reported crime in Madera has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 23% and property crime down 40%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.2 to 4.0 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 20 to 12 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 33%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
MaderaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Madera. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Madera
Violent, US
Property, Madera
Property, US
2016
+54%
+4%
+46%
+15%
2017
+15%
+4%
+33%
+12%
2018
+20%
+0%
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-9%
+4%
-13%
-8%
2021
-16%
+6%
-26%
-10%
2022
-7%
+5%
-15%
-6%
2023
+15%
+2%
-37%
-7%
2024
-23%
-4%
-40%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Madera
CrimeGrade™ estimates Madera has about 41 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 10% more than the US as a whole and close to California.
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.
Assault is the most common crime in Madera, about 40% 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 Madera
Madera has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Madera, 40% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 34% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (40%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (64%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (34%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (34%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (46%)
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 Madera compares with nearby cities
Of the 5 cities closest to Madera, 4 have less crime. La Vina and Bonadelle Ranchos-Madera Ranchos have the least.
Two things set Madera apart: it has 6.7 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally, and 40% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places with few stores and restaurants tend to report less theft; here theft sits near the national middle.
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.6.7 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 82% 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.40% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 76% 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. 74% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (20 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 60% of US city residents
Show all 6
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.3 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 67% 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 62% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.36 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 61% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Madera 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 Madera
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Madera about $2,007 a year per household, 66% 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 $146 million a year, or $1,659 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$8.0 million
$91
Rape
$2.6 million
$30
Robbery
$2.0 million
$23
Assault
$17 million
$189
Burglary
$2.5 million
$28
Theft
$4.3 million
$49
Vehicle theft
$4.4 million
$50
Arson
$1.3 million
$15
Vandalism
$4.2 million
$48
Total
$46 million
$523
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 Madera 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 Madera, CA average a SchoolGrade of D+: 30% of students test proficient, against 27% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Madera on SchoolGrade
