The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Santa Maria, CA
Santa Maria is a city of 114,100 in Santa Barbara County and the main city of the Santa Maria metro area, home to 443,700 · Updated November 2026
Is Santa Maria, CA safe?
Crime in Santa Maria is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B-. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 76% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Santa Maria. Violent crime grades B and property crime C+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Santa Maria run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
B-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 609 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
24% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Santa Maria as a whole, and 76% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Santa Maria scores 609.
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 Santa Maria, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Santa Maria, 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 Santa Maria
Robbery stands out among B-graded cities. For the typical resident of a B-graded US city, the figure is 0.63 robberies a year per 1,000 residents; Santa Maria has 1.7.
Car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Santa Maria, 59% of reported car thefts happen on streets and sidewalks, against 27% nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Santa Maria
Crime varies widely across Santa Maria: 45% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 25% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Santa Maria run from A+ to F; 1% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
45%30%25%
A or B 45%C 30%D or F 25%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Santa Maria, the southeast side has the least crime and the west side the most.
Crime rates and types in Santa Maria
CrimeGrade™ estimates Santa Maria has about 45 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 22% more than the US as a whole and close to 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.
Assault is the most common crime in Santa Maria, about 32% of everything reported, and it also accounts for 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 Santa Maria
Santa Maria has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Santa Maria, 30% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 38% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (50%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (59%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (38%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (26%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (38%)
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 Santa Maria compares with nearby cities
Santa Maria has the most crime of its 4 nearest cities.
Density, empty homes and walkability in Santa Maria
Two things set Santa Maria apart: it has 72% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 3.1% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places where many residents live in dense blocks tend to report more robbery and car theft, and they run high here.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.72% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 91% 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.3.1% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 85% 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. 57% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C (32 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 83% of US city residents
Show all 6
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.9 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 79% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.8.7 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 66% of US city residents
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 Santa Maria: D+ (18 of 100).2 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 57% 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 Santa Maria
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Santa Maria about $2,223 a year per household, 84% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $67 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 $201 million a year, or $1,764 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$7.5 million
$66
Rape
$4.7 million
$41
Robbery
$6.0 million
$53
Assault
$22 million
$193
Burglary
$3.2 million
$28
Theft
$6.6 million
$58
Vehicle theft
$7.4 million
$65
Arson
$1.8 million
$16
Vandalism
$7.5 million
$65
Total
$67 million
$585
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 Santa Maria 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 Santa Maria, CA average a SchoolGrade of D+: 30% of students test proficient, against 25% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Santa Maria on SchoolGrade
