Upper West Side is a neighborhood of 218,500 residents in Manhattan, about 5 miles north of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Upper West Side in Manhattan safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B-, Upper West Side has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 79% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A- against D-. Manhattan as a whole grades C+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Upper West Side run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
B-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 558 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
21% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Upper West Side as a whole, and 79% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Upper West Side scores 558.
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 West Side, Manhattan, NY at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Upper West 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 West Side
Burglary is a strength. Upper West Side grades D- for property crime, but burglary grades A, better than in the neighborhoods where 60% 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.
Vehicle theft runs low. Upper West Side has 0.82 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, less than half the US rate of 2.7.
How Upper West Side compares within Manhattan
Crime varies widely across Upper West Side: 41% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 43% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Upper West Side run from A+ to F; 9% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
41%16%43%
A or B 41%C 16%D or F 43%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Upper West Side has less crime than 17 of the 30 neighborhoods in Manhattan. It covers much of the Upper West Side, Midtown, and Murray Hill areas and the Morningside Heights area.
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 West Side
CrimeGrade™ estimates Upper West Side has about 37 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and 49% 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 is the most common crime in Upper West Side, about 47% 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 Manhattan
The New York City Police Department polices Upper West 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 West Side compares with nearby neighborhoods
Upper West Side has less crime than 7 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Upper West 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 West Side is safer than 83% of them.
Density, walkability and transit in Upper West Side
Two things set Upper West Side apart: it has 100% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and a Walk Grade of A+ (97 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole. 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.100% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 99% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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
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 West Side: B+ (67 of 100).106 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 96% 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.0.1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 95% 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 West Side
Crime costs Upper West Side about $669 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 44% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $73 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 $172 million a year, or $786 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 West 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 West Side, Manhattan, NY average a SchoolGrade of B: 61% of students test proficient, against 56% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Upper West Side on SchoolGrade
