The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Richmond, VA
The Richmond metro area, the 45th-largest in the US, is home to 1.34 million residents; Richmond itself is the capital of Virginia · Updated November 2026
Is Richmond, VA safe?
Yes. An overall CrimeGrade™ of A- means crime in the Richmond area is low. Most US neighborhoods have little crime too, so the Richmond area sits near the middle: 42% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime, and 58% in neighborhoods with less. Violent and property crime both grade A- here. The city of Richmond itself grades C. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Richmond area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 792 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
42% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Richmond area as a whole, and 58% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Richmond area scores 792.
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 Richmond, VA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Richmond 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 Richmond area
One part of Richmond stands out for vehicle theft. Car thefts in The Fan, The Museum District & VCU, in central Richmond, run at more than triple the rate in the rest of the city.
Murders run high for an A-graded metro area. The Richmond area has 0.09 murders a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an A-graded US metro area, the figure is 0.03.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Richmond area
In the Richmond area, 77% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 6% in areas graded C and 17% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Richmond area run from A+ to F; 54% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
77%17%
A or B 77%C 6%D or F 17%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Richmond
1Three Chopt, Libbie Mill & University Of Richmond, northwestRobberies run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Richmond.A871
2Stratford Hills, Windsor Farms & Huguenot, westCar thefts run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Richmond.A868
3Bellevue, Rosedale & Scott's Addition, northRobberies run at about half the rate in the rest of Richmond.B618
4Jahnke, Westover & Cedarhurst, southwestSimple assaults run about 60% higher here than in the rest of Richmond.C+479
5The Fan, The Museum District & VCU, centralSimple assaults run at about half the rate in the rest of Richmond.C+465
6Creighton, Monroe Ward & Mosby, eastCar thefts run at about double the rate in the rest of Richmond.D-96
9North Highland Park, Ginter Park & Northern Barton Heights, northeastRobberies run at more than double the rate in the rest of Richmond.F19
Neighborhood areas of the city of Richmond, 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 Richmond 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 Tuckahoe, Glen Allen, and Short Pump areas have the least crime and the downtown Richmond area the most.
Crime rates and types in the Richmond area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Richmond area has about 39 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 6% more than the US as a whole and 15% more than Virginia.
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 40% of crime reported in the Richmond area. Murder is less common but costs more, because each one does far 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 Richmond area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Richmond area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Richmond area, 68% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 39% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (68%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (49%)
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 Richmond area compares with nearby metro areas
The Richmond area has less crime than 6 of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Richmond 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 Richmond area is safer than 56% of them.
Night lighting, density and transit in the Richmond area
The Richmond 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.75% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 78% 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.13% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 68% 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 Richmond area: D- (7 of 100).3 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 66% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.6.0% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 53% 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 Richmond area
Crime costs the Richmond area about $1,281 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 6% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $664 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 $2.40 billion a year, or $1,792 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$221 million
$165
Rape
$16 million
$12
Robbery
$15 million
$11
Assault
$173 million
$129
Burglary
$17 million
$12
Theft
$110 million
$82
Vehicle theft
$46 million
$34
Arson
$2.8 million
$2
Vandalism
$64 million
$48
Total
$664 million
$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 Richmond 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 Richmond 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 Richmond area average a SchoolGrade of C-: 68% of students test proficient, against 44% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Richmond area on SchoolGrade
