The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Wooster, OH
Wooster is a city of 41,100 in Wayne County, about 50 miles south of downtown Cleveland · Updated November 2026
Is Wooster, OH safe?
Yes. Most US neighborhoods have little crime, and Wooster has less than most of them: its overall CrimeGrade™ is A, safer than the neighborhoods where 65% of Americans live. Violent and property crime both grade A here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Wooster run from A+ to B, so check the map below.
A
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 896 of 1,000Safer than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
65% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Wooster as a whole, and 35% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Wooster scores 896.
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 Wooster, OH at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Wooster, 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 Wooster
Reported rapes run above the US rate. Wooster has less crime than the US as a whole, 22% below the US rate, but more reported rapes: 0.85 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.38 nationally.
Vehicle theft runs low. Wooster has 0.52 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, a small fraction of the US rate of 2.7.
The safest and least safe parts of Wooster
Every part of Wooster where people live grades A or B on the national scale. Grades across Wooster run from A+ to B; 85% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
100%
A or B 100%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Wooster, the northwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Wooster?
Reported crime in Wooster has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 31% and property crime down 26%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.7 to 2.5 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 24 to 18 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 17%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
WoosterUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police agencies that serve Wooster. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Wooster
Violent, US
Property, Wooster
Property, US
2016
-35%
+4%
+3%
+15%
2017
-7%
+4%
+23%
+12%
2018
-21%
+0%
+8%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-38%
+4%
-13%
-8%
2021
-32%
+6%
+2%
-10%
2022
-35%
+5%
-16%
-6%
2023
-39%
+2%
-10%
-7%
2024
-31%
-4%
-26%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Wooster
CrimeGrade™ estimates Wooster has about 29 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 22% less than the US as a whole and 17% less than Ohio.
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 43% of crime reported in Wooster. 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 Wooster
Wooster has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Wooster, 69% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 41% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (69%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Homes (38%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (41%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (36%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Aggravated assault
Homes (65%)
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 Wooster compares with nearby cities
Wooster has the most crime of its 1 nearest cities.
One thing sets Wooster apart: it has 3% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery and car theft, and car theft runs low here.
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 Wooster: F (0 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 84% 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.3% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 80% 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. 85% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (14 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 64% 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.2.7 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 79% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.62 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 79% 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.71% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 77% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Wooster 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 Wooster
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Wooster about $697 a year per household, 42% 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 $32 million a year, or $779 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$740,000
$18
Rape
$2.1 million
$51
Robbery
$100,000
$2
Assault
$3.5 million
$85
Burglary
$720,000
$18
Theft
$2.6 million
$64
Vehicle theft
$330,000
$8
Arson
$83,000
$2
Vandalism
$1.3 million
$33
Total
$12 million
$281
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 Wooster 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 Wooster, OH average a SchoolGrade of A-: 70% of students test proficient, against 57% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Wooster on SchoolGrade
