The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Merced, CA
Merced is a city of 107,500 in Merced County and the main city of the Merced metro area, home to 290,200 · Updated November 2026
Is Merced, CA safe?
Crime in Merced is high by national standards, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of C+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 83% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Merced. Violent crime grades C+ and property crime C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Merced run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
C+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 469 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
17% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Merced as a whole, and 83% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Merced scores 469.
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 Merced, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Merced, 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 Merced
Reported rapes run high for a C-graded city. Merced has 1.0 reported rapes a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a C-graded US city, the figure is 0.30.
Burglaries and robberies both run high. In Merced, each runs at more than double the US rate: 5.6 burglaries and 1.6 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.4 and 0.62 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Merced
Crime varies widely across Merced: 34% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 32% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Merced run from A+ to F; 6% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
34%34%32%
A or B 34%C 34%D or F 32%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Merced, the northeast side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Merced?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Merced is up 17%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 6.7 to 7.9 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 28 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
MercedUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Merced. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Merced
Violent, US
Property, Merced
Property, US
2016
-10%
+4%
+22%
+15%
2017
+3%
+4%
+17%
+12%
2018
-15%
+0%
-4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+16%
+4%
-19%
-8%
2021
+30%
+6%
-16%
-10%
2022
+20%
+5%
+0%
-6%
2023
+24%
+2%
-3%
-7%
2024
+17%
-4%
+1%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Merced
CrimeGrade™ estimates Merced has about 63 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 69% more than the US as a whole and 58% more than 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Merced is assault, about 32% 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 Merced
Merced has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Merced, 50% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 30% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (50%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Homes (36%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (30%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (35%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (50%)
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 Merced compares with nearby cities
Merced has the most crime of its 5 nearest cities.
Two things set Merced apart: it has 7.3 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally, and 39% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places with few stores and restaurants tend to report less theft, yet theft runs higher here than that would suggest.
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.7.3 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 79% 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.39% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 75% 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. 73% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (21 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 63% of US city residents
Show all 6
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 Merced: D (15 of 100).6 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 72% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.31 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 68% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.5 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 59% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Merced 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 Merced
Crime costs Merced about $2,712 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, more than double the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $88 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 $282 million a year, or $2,624 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$15 million
$135
Rape
$6.5 million
$61
Robbery
$5.4 million
$50
Assault
$27 million
$253
Burglary
$5.5 million
$51
Theft
$9.3 million
$87
Vehicle theft
$8.8 million
$82
Arson
$1.8 million
$16
Vandalism
$8.8 million
$82
Total
$88 million
$816
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 Merced 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 Merced, CA average a SchoolGrade of D: 26% of students test proficient, against 26% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Merced on SchoolGrade
