The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Visalia, CA
Visalia is a city of 159,800 in Tulare County and the main city of the Visalia metro area, home to 478,700 · Updated November 2026
Is Visalia, CA safe?
Crime in Visalia is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 72% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Visalia. Violent and property crime both grade B here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Visalia run from A to D-, so check the map below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 665 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
28% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Visalia as a whole, and 72% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Visalia scores 665.
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 Visalia, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Visalia, 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 Visalia
Arsons run high for a B-graded city. Visalia has 0.24 arsons a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a B-graded US city, the figure is 0.11.
The safest and least safe parts of Visalia
Low crime is the norm across Visalia: 74% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 5% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Visalia run from A to D-; 4% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
74%21%
A or B 74%C 21%D or F 5%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Visalia, the northeast side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Visalia?
Reported violent crime in Visalia peaked in 2022 and has fallen 12% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 27% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults stayed at about 4.4 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 29 to 21 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 12%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
VisaliaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Visalia. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Visalia
Violent, US
Property, Visalia
Property, US
2016
-16%
+4%
+11%
+15%
2017
-21%
+4%
+15%
+12%
2018
-22%
+0%
+3%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-10%
+4%
-25%
-8%
2021
+2%
+6%
-23%
-10%
2022
+14%
+5%
-18%
-6%
2023
+5%
+2%
-17%
-7%
2024
+0%
-4%
-27%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Visalia
CrimeGrade™ estimates Visalia has about 46 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 24% more than the US as a whole and 16% more than 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Visalia is assault, about 36% of the total. It also makes up 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 Visalia
Visalia has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Visalia, 48% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 36% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (48%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (34%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (36%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (36%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (39%)
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 Visalia compares with nearby cities
Visalia has more crime than 4 of its 6 nearest cities. Yettem and Ivanhoe have the least crime nearby.
One thing sets Visalia apart: it has 3.9% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places like that tend to report less burglary, vandalism and arson, yet burglary, vandalism and arson run higher here than that would suggest.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.3.9% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 75% 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 Visalia: F (1 of 100).under 1 trip an hourUS: noneLower than for 67% 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. 81% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (18 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 52% 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.1.3 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 66% of US city residents
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.21% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 59% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.9.6 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 56% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Visalia on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
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 Visalia
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Visalia about $1,722 a year per household, 43% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $88 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 $271 million a year, or $1,699 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$15 million
$92
Rape
$6.3 million
$39
Robbery
$4.6 million
$29
Assault
$29 million
$182
Burglary
$3.8 million
$24
Theft
$12 million
$77
Vehicle theft
$9.2 million
$58
Arson
$940,000
$6
Vandalism
$7.5 million
$47
Total
$88 million
$552
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 Visalia 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 Visalia, CA average a SchoolGrade of C: 32% of students test proficient, against 27% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Visalia on SchoolGrade
