The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in McAllen, TX
The McAllen metro area, the 64th-largest in the US, is home to 892,000 residents · Updated November 2026
Is McAllen, TX safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, the McAllen area has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 62% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, A- against B+. The city of McAllen itself grades A-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the McAllen area run from A+ to D, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 766 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
38% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the McAllen area as a whole, and 62% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The McAllen area scores 766.
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 McAllen, TX at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the McAllen 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 McAllen area
Robberies and arsons both run low. In the McAllen area, each runs at about half the US rate: 0.30 robberies and 0.06 arsons a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 and 0.12 nationally.
Car thefts happen at homes more often than nationally. In the McAllen area, 55% of reported car thefts happen at homes, against 33% nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the McAllen area
Most of the McAllen area grades well: 95% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across the McAllen area run from A+ to D; 19% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
95%
A or B 95%C 5%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Cities and towns in the McAllen 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 Hidalgo area has the least crime and the Weslaco, Donna, and Mercedes areas the most.
Is crime going up in the McAllen area?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in the McAllen area is up 17% and property crime is down 28%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 2.7 to 3.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 22 to 16 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 11%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
McAllen areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the McAllen area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, McAllen area
Violent, US
Property, McAllen area
Property, US
2016
+10%
+4%
+30%
+15%
2017
+9%
+4%
+14%
+12%
2018
+0%
+0%
+6%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+3%
+4%
-18%
-8%
2021
+18%
+6%
-25%
-10%
2022
+11%
+5%
-20%
-6%
2023
+6%
+2%
-19%
-7%
2024
+17%
-4%
-28%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the McAllen area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the McAllen area has about 38 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and close to Texas.
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 the McAllen area is assault, about 41% 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 the McAllen area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the McAllen area, 2022 to 2024.
In the McAllen area, 68% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 43% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (68%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (43%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (31%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (62%)
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 McAllen area compares with nearby metro areas
The McAllen area has less crime than 6 of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the McAllen 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 McAllen area has more crime than 65% of them.
Transit, empty homes and night lighting in the McAllen area
The McAllen area looks like a typical metro area on the traits that tend to go with crime.
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 McAllen area: F (0 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 94% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.8.3% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 87% 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.96% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 86% 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.18% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 59% 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 McAllen area
Crime costs the McAllen area about $1,445 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 20% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $374 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 $1.15 billion a year, or $1,294 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$56 million
$63
Rape
$32 million
$36
Robbery
$8.2 million
$9
Assault
$148 million
$166
Burglary
$13 million
$15
Theft
$60 million
$67
Vehicle theft
$20 million
$23
Arson
$1.3 million
$1
Vandalism
$33 million
$37
Total
$374 million
$419
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 McAllen 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 McAllen 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 McAllen area average a SchoolGrade of C+: 45% of students test proficient, against 25% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in the McAllen area on SchoolGrade
