The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Wichita, KS
The Wichita metro area, the 91st-largest in the US, is home to 652,600 residents; Wichita itself is the largest city in Kansas · Updated November 2026
Is Wichita, KS safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B, the Wichita area has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 71% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent and property crime both grade B here. The city of Wichita itself grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Wichita area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
B
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 680 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
29% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Wichita area as a whole, and 71% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Wichita area scores 680.
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 Wichita, KS at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Wichita area, 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 the Wichita area
Aggravated assault stands out among B-graded metro areas. For the typical resident of a B-graded US metro area, the figure is 2.8 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; the Wichita area has 7.5.
Burglaries run high in Delano, Kellogg School & McCormick. In this part of central Wichita, they run at more than double the rate in the rest of Wichita.
Thefts and simple assaults both run high. In the Wichita area, each runs at more than double the US rate: 29.3 thefts and 23.3 simple assaults a year per 1,000 residents, against 13.1 and 9.7 nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Wichita area
Safety changes a lot from one part of the Wichita area to the next: 63% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 29% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Wichita area run from A+ to F; 38% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
63%29%
A or B 63%C 8%D or F 29%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Wichita
1Benjamin Hills, Indian Hills Riverbend & Northwest Big River, northwestRobberies run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Wichita.B+740
Neighborhood areas of the city of Wichita, ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer). Each one combines several of the smaller areas on the map.
Cities and towns in the Wichita metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Across the area, the Wellington, Clearwater, and Cheney areas have the least crime and the downtown Wichita area the most.
Crime rates and types in the Wichita area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Wichita area has about 87 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, more than double the rate for the US as a whole and 68% more than Kansas.
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 the Wichita area, about 35% 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 the Wichita area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Wichita area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Wichita area, 60% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 51% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (60%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (56%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Homes (51%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (56%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Homes (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (61%)
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 the Wichita area compares with nearby metro areas
Of the 10 metro areas closest to the Wichita area, 9 have less crime. The Des Moines area and the Omaha area have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Wichita area. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Wichita area has more crime than 99% of them.
Density, empty homes and transit in the Wichita area
One thing sets the Wichita area apart: it has 5% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery and car theft, yet robbery and car theft run higher here than that would suggest.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.5% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 92% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.8.7% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 88% of Americans in metro areas
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the Wichita area: D- (9 of 100).2 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 74% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
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.87% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 51% of Americans in metro areas
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 the Wichita area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Wichita area about $2,416 a year per household, about double the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $610 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 $1.83 billion a year, or $2,799 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$77 million
$119
Rape
$22 million
$34
Robbery
$14 million
$21
Assault
$251 million
$384
Burglary
$25 million
$38
Theft
$98 million
$150
Vehicle theft
$40 million
$62
Arson
$3.4 million
$5
Vandalism
$79 million
$121
Total
$610 million
$934
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 the Wichita area 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. These figures cover the whole Wichita metro area. 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 the Wichita area average a SchoolGrade of C: 39% of students test proficient, against 33% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Wichita area on SchoolGrade
