The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Worcester, MA
The Worcester metro area, the 69th-largest in the US, is home to 867,800 residents; Worcester itself is the second-largest city in Massachusetts · Updated November 2026
Is Worcester, MA safe?
Yes. An overall CrimeGrade™ of A- means crime in the Worcester area is low. Most US neighborhoods have little crime too, so the Worcester area sits near the middle: 51% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime, and 49% in neighborhoods with less. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, A against A-. The city of Worcester itself grades B-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Worcester area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 842 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
51% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Worcester area as a whole, and 49% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Worcester area scores 842.
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 Worcester, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Worcester 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 Worcester area
Car thefts run high in Institute Park & Central Business District. In this part of central Worcester, they run at more than double the rate in the rest of Worcester.
Robbery runs low. The Worcester area has 0.32 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, about half the US rate of 0.62.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Worcester area
Most of the Worcester area grades well: 89% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 7% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Worcester area run from A+ to F; 67% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
89%
A or B 89%C 4%D or F 7%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Worcester
1Forest Grove & Salisbury Street, northwestAggravated assaults run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Worcester.A871
Neighborhood areas of the city of Worcester, 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 Worcester 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 Shrewsbury, Westborough, and Northborough areas have the least crime and the downtown Worcester area the most.
Crime rates and types in the Worcester area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Worcester area has about 26 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 31% less than the US as a whole and close to Massachusetts.
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 Worcester area, about 40% 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 Worcester area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Worcester area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Worcester area, 58% 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 (58%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Homes (50%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (51%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (46%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (53%)
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 Worcester area compares with nearby metro areas
Of the 10 metro areas closest to the Worcester area, 7 have less crime. The Poughkeepsie area and the Allentown area have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Worcester 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 Worcester area is safer than 65% of them.
Night lighting, empty homes and transit in the Worcester area
One thing sets the Worcester area apart: it has 4.6% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places like that tend to report less burglary; here burglary sits near the national middle.
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.60% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 93% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.4.6% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 84% 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 Worcester area: D- (9 of 100).3 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 57% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.20% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 54% 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 Worcester area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Worcester area about $824 a year per household, 32% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $273 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 $950 million a year, or $1,095 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$40 million
$46
Rape
$15 million
$17
Robbery
$8.7 million
$10
Assault
$123 million
$142
Burglary
$11 million
$13
Theft
$37 million
$42
Vehicle theft
$13 million
$15
Arson
$920,000
$1
Vandalism
$25 million
$29
Total
$273 million
$315
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 Worcester 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 Worcester 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 Worcester area average a SchoolGrade of C: 40% of students test proficient, against 40% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in the Worcester area on SchoolGrade
