The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Madison, WI
The Madison metro area, the 87th-largest in the US, is home to 691,800 residents; Madison itself is the capital of Wisconsin · Updated November 2026
Is Madison, WI safe?
Yes. Most US neighborhoods have little crime, and the Madison area has less than most of them: its overall CrimeGrade™ is A, safer than the neighborhoods where 74% of Americans live. Violent crime grades A+ and property crime A. The city of Madison itself grades A-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Madison area run from A+ to C+, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 919 of 1,000Safer than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
74% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Madison area as a whole, and 26% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Madison area scores 919.
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 Madison, WI at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Madison 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 Madison area
One part of Madison stands out for vehicle theft. Car thefts in Capitol, in central Madison, run at about triple the rate in the rest of the city.
Robbery runs low. The Madison area has 0.18 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, a small fraction of the US rate of 0.62.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Madison area
Every part of the Madison area where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across the Madison area run from A+ to C+; 76% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
100%
A or B 100%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Madison
1Waunona, southeastThefts run at about half the rate in the rest of Madison.A889
5Ridgewood, Bluff Acres & Heistand, northeastCar thefts run about 30% lower here than in the rest of Madison.A-818
6Capitol, centralClose to the rest of Madison on most crimes.A-817
7Sherman, Berkley Oaks & Sherman Village, northRobberies run at about double the rate in the rest of Madison.B+738
8Moorland-Rimrock, Burr Oaks & Bay Creek, southAggravated assaults run at about double the rate in the rest of Madison.B+698
Neighborhood areas of the city of Madison, 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 Madison 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 Verona, Monroe, and Mount Horeb areas have the least crime and the downtown Madison area the most.
Crime rates and types in the Madison area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Madison area has about 25 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 34% less than the US as a whole and close to Wisconsin.
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 Madison area, about 47% of everything reported, but assault costs more, because each one does 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 Madison area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Madison area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Madison area, 68% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 41% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (68%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (33%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (41%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Vandalism
Homes (38%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (30%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (54%)
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; they are over one in five for burglary, car theft, theft from cars, vandalism, robbery, aggravated assault.
How the Madison area compares with nearby metro areas
The Madison area has the least crime of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Madison 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 Madison area is safer than 99% of them.
Empty homes, transit and night lighting in the Madison area
Two things set the Madison area apart: it has 3.3% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally, and 12 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby. Places with few empty homes tend to report less burglary, and it runs low here.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.3.3% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 99% of Americans in metro areas
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 Madison area: D (16 of 100).12 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 81% 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.78% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 71% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.19% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 54% 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 Madison area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Madison area about $585 a year per household, 51% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $168 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 $490 million a year, or $708 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$23 million
$33
Rape
$9.9 million
$14
Robbery
$3.9 million
$6
Assault
$56 million
$80
Burglary
$6.8 million
$10
Theft
$41 million
$59
Vehicle theft
$8.3 million
$12
Arson
$330,000
under $1
Vandalism
$20 million
$29
Total
$168 million
$243
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 Madison 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 Madison 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 Madison area average a SchoolGrade of B-: 46% of students test proficient, against 48% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Madison area on SchoolGrade
