The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Portland, OR
The Portland metro area, the 25th-largest in the US, is home to 2.52 million residents in Oregon and Washington; Portland itself is the largest city in Oregon · Updated November 2026
Is Portland, OR safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, the Portland area has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 64% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent crime grades A- and property crime B. The city of Portland itself grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Portland area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 751 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
36% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Portland area as a whole, and 64% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Portland area scores 751.
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 Portland, OR at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Portland 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 Portland area
Car thefts run high in Buckman, Richmond & Irvington. In this part of central Portland, they run at about double the rate in the rest of Portland.
Robberies happen at stores and businesses more often than nationally. In the Portland area, 54% of reported robberies happen at stores and businesses, against 33% nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Portland area
In the Portland area, 74% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 11% in areas graded C and 15% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Portland area run from A+ to F; 38% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
74%11%15%
A or B 74%C 11%D or F 15%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhood areas of the city of Portland, 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 Portland 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.
Is crime going up in the Portland area?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in the Portland area is up 20%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.1 to 3.8 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 28 to 27 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 11%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Portland areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Portland area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Portland area
Violent, US
Property, Portland area
Property, US
2016
-11%
+4%
-0%
+15%
2017
-9%
+4%
+5%
+12%
2018
-2%
+0%
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+4%
+4%
-1%
-8%
2021
+28%
+6%
+13%
-10%
2022
+31%
+5%
+24%
-6%
2023
+23%
+2%
+8%
-7%
2024
+20%
-4%
-4%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Portland area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Portland area has about 44 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 19% more than the US as a whole and close to Oregon.
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 Portland area, about 44% 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 Portland area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Portland area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Portland area, 41% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 32% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (41%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (32%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (30%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (54%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (46%)
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 Portland area compares with nearby metro areas
The Portland area has less crime than 6 of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Portland 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 Portland area is safer than 50% of them.
Empty homes, transit and density in the Portland area
Two things set the Portland area apart: it has 4.1% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally, and 10 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, yet burglary runs higher here than that would suggest.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.4.1% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 94% 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 Portland area: D+ (20 of 100).10 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 80% of Americans in metro areas
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.29% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 62% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
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.89% where people liveUS: 78%Higher 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 Portland area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Portland area about $1,273 a year per household, 6% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $1.25 billion 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 $3.65 billion a year, or $1,448 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$198 million
$79
Rape
$65 million
$26
Robbery
$60 million
$24
Assault
$317 million
$126
Burglary
$76 million
$30
Theft
$251 million
$100
Vehicle theft
$152 million
$60
Arson
$12 million
$5
Vandalism
$115 million
$46
Total
$1.25 billion
$495
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 Portland 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 Portland 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
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 Portland area average a SchoolGrade of B-: 38% of students test proficient, against 40% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Portland area on SchoolGrade
