The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in New Haven, CT
The New Haven metro area, the 70th-largest in the US, is home to 867,500 residents; New Haven itself is the third-largest city in Connecticut · Updated November 2026
Is New Haven, CT safe?
Crime in the New Haven area is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 62% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than the New Haven area. Violent crime grades A- and property crime B+. The city of New Haven itself grades D+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the New Haven area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 768 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
38% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the New Haven 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 New Haven area scores 768.
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 New Haven, CT at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the New Haven 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 New Haven area
Car thefts run high in East Rock & Dixwell. In this part of central New Haven, they run at about double the rate in the rest of New Haven.
Aggravated assaults are less common than in most B-graded metro areas. The New Haven area has 1.2 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a B-graded US metro area, the figure is 2.8.
The safest and most dangerous places in the New Haven area
In the New Haven area, 78% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 7% in areas graded C and 15% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the New Haven area run from A+ to F; 54% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
78%15%
A or B 78%C 7%D or F 15%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of New Haven
1Quinnipiac Meadows, northeastCar thefts run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of New Haven.B679
2West Rock, Westville & Amity, northwestCar thefts run at about half the rate in the rest of New Haven.C389
4Fair Haven, eastClose to the rest of New Haven on most crimes.D+233
5Edgewood & Dwight, westCar thefts run about 40% higher here than in the rest of New Haven.D-149
6Annex & Mill River, southeastRobberies run at about double the rate in the rest of New Haven.D-118
7East Rock & Dixwell, centralThefts run about 40% higher here than in the rest of New Haven.D-108
8Newhallville & Prospect Hill, northRobberies run at about double the rate in the rest of New Haven.D-97
9Hill & West River, southwestRobberies run at about double the rate in the rest of New Haven.F0
Neighborhood areas of the city of New Haven, 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 New Haven 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 Milford area has the least crime and the West Haven and New Haven areas the most.
Is crime going up in the New Haven area?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in the New Haven area is down 29%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.1 to 2.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 22 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 14% and property crime fell 12%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
New Haven areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the New Haven area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, New Haven area
Violent, US
Property, New Haven area
Property, US
2016
+10%
+4%
+16%
+15%
2017
+2%
+4%
+10%
+12%
2018
+2%
+0%
+10%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-12%
+4%
+3%
-8%
2021
-10%
+6%
+0%
-10%
2022
-18%
+5%
+6%
-6%
2023
-17%
+2%
+15%
-7%
2024
-29%
-4%
+1%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the New Haven area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the New Haven area has about 40 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 8% more than the US as a whole and 47% more than Connecticut.
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 makes up about 36% of crime reported in the New Haven area. Assault is less common but 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 New Haven area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the New Haven area, 2022 to 2024.
In the New Haven area, 56% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 33% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (56%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (34%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (33%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (35%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (44%)
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 New Haven area compares with nearby metro areas
The New Haven area has more crime than 8 of its 10 nearest metro areas. The Poughkeepsie area and the Allentown area have the least crime nearby.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the New Haven 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 New Haven area has more crime than 62% of them.
Night lighting, transit and empty homes in the New Haven area
The New Haven area looks like a typical metro area on the traits that tend to go with crime.
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.77% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 73% 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 New Haven area: D (18 of 100).7 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 67% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.5.7% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 57% 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.25% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 52% 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 New Haven area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the New Haven area about $1,033 a year per household, 14% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $355 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 $897 million a year, or $1,034 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$56 million
$64
Rape
$11 million
$13
Robbery
$17 million
$19
Assault
$94 million
$108
Burglary
$12 million
$13
Theft
$64 million
$74
Vehicle theft
$51 million
$58
Arson
$900,000
$1
Vandalism
$50 million
$58
Total
$355 million
$409
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 New Haven 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 New Haven 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 New Haven area average a SchoolGrade of C-: 38% of students test proficient, against 38% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the New Haven area on SchoolGrade
