The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Oceanside, CA
Oceanside is a city of 187,800 in San Diego County, about 35 miles north of downtown San Diego · Updated November 2026
Is Oceanside, CA safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, Oceanside has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 66% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent and property crime both grade B+ here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Oceanside run from A+ to D+, so check the map or the safest and least safe neighborhoods below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 729 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
34% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Oceanside as a whole, and 66% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Oceanside scores 729.
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 Oceanside, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Oceanside, 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 Oceanside
One part of Oceanside stands out for vehicle theft. Car thefts in Townsite & South Oceanside, in southwest Oceanside, run at about double the rate in the rest of the city.
The safest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Oceanside
Low crime is the norm across Oceanside: 90% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Oceanside run from A+ to D+; 18% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
90%10%
A or B 90%C 10%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
1Camp Pendleton South, northwestThefts run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Oceanside.A887
2Guajome & Morro Hills, northeastAggravated assaults run at about half the rate in the rest of Oceanside.A-815
3Fire Mountain, southRobberies run about 40% lower here than in the rest of Oceanside.A-772
4Lake & Tri-City, southeastSimple assaults run about 30% lower here than in the rest of Oceanside.B+764
5Peacock, eastClose to the rest of Oceanside on most crimes.B+750
7Ivey Ranch-Rancho del Oro, centralCar thefts run about 40% lower here than in the rest of Oceanside.B+711
8East Side Capistrano, westAggravated assaults run about 60% higher here than in the rest of Oceanside.B625
9Townsite & South Oceanside, southwestAggravated assaults run at about double the rate in the rest of Oceanside.C+493
Neighborhood areas of Oceanside, 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.
Is crime going up in Oceanside?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Oceanside is up 12% and property crime is down 22%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.1 to 4.5 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 21 to 17 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
OceansideUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Oceanside. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Oceanside
Violent, US
Property, Oceanside
Property, US
2016
-7%
+4%
+17%
+15%
2017
-3%
+4%
+9%
+12%
2018
-6%
+0%
+2%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+2%
+4%
-14%
-8%
2021
+17%
+6%
-6%
-10%
2022
+20%
+5%
-5%
-6%
2023
+8%
+2%
-16%
-7%
2024
+12%
-4%
-22%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Oceanside
CrimeGrade™ estimates Oceanside has about 33 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 10% less than the US as a whole and 16% less 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.
Theft is the most common crime in Oceanside, about 31% 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 Oceanside
Oceanside has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Oceanside, 42% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 34% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (42%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (31%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (34%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (25%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (46%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (33%)
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 Oceanside compares with nearby cities
Oceanside has the most crime of its 10 nearest cities.
Two things set Oceanside apart: it has 14 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby, and 25 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery, and they run high here.
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 Oceanside: C- (30 of 100).14 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 89% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.25 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 78% 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. 84% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (17 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 53% of US city residents
Show all 6
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
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.2 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 71% of US city residents
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.4.3% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 70% of US city residents
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 Oceanside
Crime costs Oceanside about $1,107 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 8% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $73 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 $225 million a year, or $1,199 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$8.9 million
$47
Rape
$3.5 million
$19
Robbery
$4.5 million
$24
Assault
$27 million
$143
Burglary
$4.7 million
$25
Theft
$10 million
$53
Vehicle theft
$5.7 million
$30
Arson
$590,000
$3
Vandalism
$8.7 million
$46
Total
$73 million
$391
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 Oceanside 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 Oceanside, CA average a SchoolGrade of B: 40% of students test proficient, against 36% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Oceanside on SchoolGrade
