The Chattanooga metro area, the 100th-largest in the US, is home to 575,800 residents in Tennessee and Georgia; Chattanooga itself is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in the Chattanooga area?
The Chattanooga area earns an A- for violent crime, with more violent crime than the neighborhoods where 63% of Americans live. Assaults make up 94% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. The city of Chattanooga itself grades C+ for violent crime.
A-
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 794 of 1,000More violent crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
37% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than the Chattanooga area as a whole, and 63% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. The Chattanooga area scores 794.
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 Chattanooga, TN at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Chattanooga 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
Where violent crime is lowest and highest in the Chattanooga area
Most of the Chattanooga area grades well for violent crime: 85% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 10% in areas graded D or F. Violent crime grades across the Chattanooga area run from A+ to F.
85%10%
A or B 85%C 5%D or F 10%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Chattanooga
1Northside Community, northwestRobberies run at about half the rate in the rest of Chattanooga.A-773
2Twin Brook Community Club & Shepherd Community Action Council, eastRobberies run about 30% lower here than in the rest of Chattanooga.B-600
3Martin Luther King, Southside Historic District & Lookout Valley, westRobberies run about 30% lower here than in the rest of Chattanooga.C+464
4Piney Woods, southwestRobberies run about 40% higher here than in the rest of Chattanooga.C426
5Highland Park, centralAggravated assaults run about 70% higher here than in the rest of Chattanooga.D-89
Neighborhood areas of the city of Chattanooga, 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 Chattanooga 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 Chattanooga area?
Reported violent crime in the Chattanooga area has fallen 13% since 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.2 to 4.5 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 16%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Chattanooga areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Chattanooga area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Chattanooga area
Violent, US
2016
+5%
+4%
2017
+8%
+4%
2018
+4%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
+22%
+4%
2021
+20%
+6%
2022
+6%
+5%
2023
+3%
+2%
2024
-13%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in the Chattanooga area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Chattanooga area has about 15 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 10% more than the US as a whole and 27% less than Tennessee.
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 Chattanooga area, about 94% of the total. Murder and rape are far rarer, but they account for 41% of the cost of violent crime here.
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 Chattanooga area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Chattanooga area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Chattanooga area, 50% of aggravated assaults happen at a home, against 53% nationally. Robberies happen most often at homes: 29% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Robbery
Homes (29%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (50%)
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 Chattanooga area and nearby metro areas
The Chattanooga area has less violent crime than 8 of its 10 nearest metro areas; only the Knoxville area and the Greenville area have less.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Chattanooga 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 Chattanooga area is safer than 58% of them.
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, one sets the Chattanooga area apart: it has 5% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery; here robbery sits near the national middle.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery.5% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 95% 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 Chattanooga area: F (5 of 100).1 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 80% 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 Chattanooga area
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs the Chattanooga area about $894 million a year, or $1,553 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $185 million, or $321 per resident.
Billed cost of violent crime per resident, per year
How the cost breaks down
Pain and suffering are about 79% of that full cost.
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$59 million
$103
Rape
$16 million
$28
Robbery
$6.5 million
$11
Assault
$103 million
$179
Total
$185 million
$321
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 Chattanooga 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.
