The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Seal Beach, CA
Seal Beach is a city of 25,300 in Orange County, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles · Updated November 2026
Is Seal Beach, CA safe?
Yes. An overall CrimeGrade™ of A- means crime in Seal Beach is low. Most US neighborhoods have little crime too, so Seal Beach sits near the middle: 42% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime, and 58% in neighborhoods with less. Violent crime grades A- and property crime B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Seal Beach run from A to C, so check the map below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 794 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
42% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Seal Beach as a whole, and 58% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Seal Beach scores 794.
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 Seal Beach, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Seal Beach, 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 Seal Beach
Robberies run high for an A-graded city. Seal Beach has 0.78 robberies a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an A-graded US city, the figure is 0.13.
One weak spot: aggravated assault. It grades B- in Seal Beach, worse than in the neighborhoods where 83% of Americans live, against A- for violent crime as a whole.
The safest and least safe parts of Seal Beach
Most of Seal Beach grades well: 97% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Seal Beach run from A to C; 10% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
97%
A or B 97%C 3%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Seal Beach, the north side has the least crime and the southwest side the most.
Is crime going up in Seal Beach?
Reported property crime in Seal Beach has risen 18% since 2019. Too few violent crimes are reported here each year for a reliable violent crime trend. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 23 to 27 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). Property crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Property crime, change since 2019
Seal BeachUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Seal Beach. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Seal Beach
Property, US
2016
-3%
+15%
2017
+15%
+12%
2018
+8%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-3%
-8%
2021
+9%
-10%
2022
+7%
-6%
2023
+18%
-7%
2024
+18%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Seal Beach
CrimeGrade™ estimates Seal Beach has about 38 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as 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.
Theft is the most common crime in Seal Beach, about 55% of everything reported, but assault 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 Seal Beach
Seal Beach has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Seal Beach, 17% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 45% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (32%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (51%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (45%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (34%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Seal Beach compares with nearby cities
Seal Beach has less crime than 8 of its 10 nearest cities; only Los Alamitos and Cypress have less.
Density, night lighting and walkability in Seal Beach
One thing sets Seal Beach apart: it has 63% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that 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.63% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 88% of US city residents
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.100% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 81% 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. 70% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.C- (26 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 75% 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.2.0 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 63% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.11.3 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 63% 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.7.0% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 62% 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 Seal Beach
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Seal Beach about $718 a year per household, 40% less than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $28 million a year, or $1,096 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$540,000
$21
Rape
$240,000
$9
Robbery
$610,000
$24
Assault
$3.4 million
$134
Burglary
$880,000
$35
Theft
$2.7 million
$106
Vehicle theft
$520,000
$21
Arson
$65,000
$3
Vandalism
$750,000
$30
Total
$9.7 million
$382
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 Seal Beach 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 Seal Beach, CA average a SchoolGrade of A+: 60% of students test proficient, against 54% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Seal Beach on SchoolGrade
