Upper East Side is a neighborhood of 161,600 residents in Manhattan, about 5 miles northeast of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Upper East Side in Manhattan safe?
Crime in Upper East Side is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B-. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 80% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Upper East Side. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A against F. Manhattan as a whole grades C+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Upper East Side run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
B-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 544 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
20% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Upper East Side as a whole, and 80% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Upper East Side scores 544.
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 Upper East Side, Manhattan, NY at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Upper East Side in Manhattan, 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 Upper East Side
Burglary is a strength. Upper East Side grades F for property crime, but burglary grades A, better than in the neighborhoods where 65% of Americans live.
Thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Manhattan as a whole, 79% of reported thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks, against 18% nationally.
Car thefts and acts of vandalism both run low. In Upper East Side, each runs at less than half the US rate: 0.82 car thefts and 2.3 acts of vandalism a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 and 5.5 nationally.
How Upper East Side compares within Manhattan
Safety changes a lot from one part of Upper East Side to the next: 37% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 43% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across Upper East Side run from A+ to F; 7% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
37%20%43%
A or B 37%C 20%D or F 43%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Upper East Side has less crime than 15 of the 30 neighborhoods in Manhattan. It covers much of the Upper East Side and Carnegie Hill areas and the Upper West Side, Midtown, and Murray Hill areas.
Is crime going up in Manhattan?
Reported crime in Manhattan as a whole has risen since 2019: violent crime is up 15% and property crime up 58%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.7 to 6.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 15 to 23 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
ManhattanUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Manhattan. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Manhattan
Violent, US
Property, Manhattan
Property, US
2016
+1%
+4%
+1%
+15%
2017
-4%
+4%
+1%
+12%
2018
-4%
+0%
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-4%
+4%
+1%
-8%
2021
+10%
+6%
+8%
-10%
2022
+28%
+5%
+44%
-6%
2023
+15%
+2%
+61%
-7%
2024
+15%
-4%
+58%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Upper East Side
CrimeGrade™ estimates Upper East Side has about 35 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and 51% less than Manhattan as a whole.
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 55% of crime reported in Upper East Side. Assault is less common but 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 Manhattan
The New York City Police Department polices Upper East Side; these figures cover New York as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In New York as a whole, 50% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (50%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (79%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (79%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (50%)
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 Upper East Side compares with nearby neighborhoods
Upper East Side has more crime than 6 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods. Roosevelt Island and Murray Hill have the least crime nearby.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Upper East Side. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, Upper East Side is safer than 79% of them.
Walkability, density and transit in Upper East Side
Two things set Upper East Side apart: it has a Walk Grade of A+ (97 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and 100% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report more theft and assault, and they run high here.
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. 100% of residents here live in walkable areas.A+ (97 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 99% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.100% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 99% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 Upper East Side: B+ (71 of 100).139 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 98% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.under 1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 98% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 Upper East Side
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Upper East Side about $508 a year per household, 58% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $48 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 $98 million a year, or $606 per resident.
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 Upper East Side 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
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 Upper East Side, Manhattan, NY average a SchoolGrade of A+: 76% of students test proficient, against 64% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Upper East Side on SchoolGrade
