The Boise metro area, the 76th-largest in the US, is home to 811,100 residents; Boise itself is the capital and largest city of Idaho · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in the Boise area?
The Boise area earns an A for violent crime, safer than the neighborhoods where 59% of Americans live. Assaults make up 92% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. The city of Boise itself grades A for violent crime.
A
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 890 of 1,000About as much violent crime as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
59% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than the Boise area as a whole, and 41% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. The Boise area scores 890.
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 violent crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its violent crime with the people who spend time there, on one national scale, from green for the least to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy downtown or nightlife strip can show red while the homes around it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a solid connection. Compare high speed internet in Boise, ID at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Boise 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 about violent crime in the Boise area
Reported rapes run above the US rate. The Boise area has less violent crime than the US as a whole, 33% below the US rate, but more reported rapes: 0.58 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.38 nationally.
Robberies are uncommon. The Boise area has robberies at a small fraction of the US rate: 0.10 a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 nationally.
Where violent crime is lowest and highest in the Boise area
Most of the Boise area grades well for violent crime: 98% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Violent crime grades across the Boise area run from A+ to C+.
98%
A or B 98%C 2%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Boise
1Southeast Boise, southeastAggravated assaults run at less than half the rate in the rest of Boise.A+938
2Highlands & Boise Heights, northeastSimple assaults run at about half the rate in the rest of Boise.A+927
3Southwest Ada, southwestAggravated assaults run about 30% lower here than in the rest of Boise.A889
4Maple Grove-Franklin, westClose to the rest of Boise on most crimes.A873
Neighborhood areas of the city of Boise, ranked by violent crime 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 Boise metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by violent crime CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Is violent crime going up in the Boise area?
Reported violent crime in the Boise area has held about steady since 2019, within 2%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 2.7 to 2.8 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). Violent crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Boise areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Boise area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Boise area
Violent, US
2016
-9%
+4%
2017
-4%
+4%
2018
-4%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
+4%
+4%
2021
+1%
+6%
2022
+7%
+5%
2023
+10%
+2%
2024
+2%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in the Boise area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Boise area has about 9.0 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 33% less than the US as a whole and close to Idaho.
All violent crime
Assaults
Robbery
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. Violent crime here includes simple assaults, which the FBI's violent crime rate leaves out.
Assault is the most common violent crime in the Boise area, about 92% of the total.
Each CrimeGrade™ here compares a violent crime with the people who spend time in an area, not only the people who live there. 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 violent crime happens in the Boise area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Boise area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Boise area, 62% of aggravated assaults happen at a home, against 53% nationally. Robberies happen most often at stores and businesses: 36% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Robbery
Stores and businesses (36%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (62%)
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.
Violent crime in the Boise area and nearby metro areas
The Boise area has less violent crime than 9 of its 10 nearest metro areas; only the Provo area has less.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Boise area. Beside each violent crime CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Boise area is safer than 86% of them.
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, one sets the Boise area apart: it has 10% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery, and it runs low here.
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 Boise area: F (6 of 100).1 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 80% of Americans in metro areas
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery.10% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 78% 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 violent crime costs the Boise area
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs the Boise area about $598 million a year, or $738 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $134 million, or $165 per resident.
Billed cost of violent crime per resident, per year
How the cost breaks down
Pain and suffering are about 78% of that full cost.
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$19 million
$23
Rape
$28 million
$35
Robbery
$2.5 million
$3
Assault
$84 million
$104
Total
$134 million
$165
How CrimeGrade™ works
The violent crime CrimeGrade™ covers murder, rape, robbery and assault, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most, on one scale for the whole country.
It weighs each violent crime against the people who spend time in an area, so a busy downtown is graded on its workers and visitors as well as its residents.
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 Boise 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
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.
