First Hill, Seattle, WA Violent Crime Rates and Maps
First Hill is a neighborhood of 15,600 residents in Seattle, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in First Hill?
Violent crime is high in First Hill: a C+, with more violent crime than the neighborhoods where 86% of Americans live. Assaults make up 87% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. Seattle as a whole grades B- for violent crime.
C+
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 492 of 1,000More violent crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
14% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than First Hill as a whole, and 86% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. First Hill scores 492.
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 First Hill, Seattle, WA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in First Hill in Seattle, 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 First Hill
Robberies and aggravated assaults both run high. In First Hill, each runs at more than triple the US rate: 4.2 robberies and 11.9 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 and 2.6 nationally.
How First Hill compares within Seattle
Violent crime changes a lot from one part of First Hill to the next: 39% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 42% live in areas graded D or F. Violent crime grades across First Hill run from B+ to D-.
39%19%42%
A or B 39%C 19%D or F 42%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
First Hill has less violent crime than 23 of the 67 neighborhoods in Seattle. It covers much of the Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Downtown Seattle areas.
Is violent crime going up in Seattle?
Reported violent crime in Seattle as a whole has risen 13% since 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 6.7 to 7.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). Violent crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
SeattleUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Seattle. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Seattle
Violent, US
2016
-9%
+4%
2017
-8%
+4%
2018
+2%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-1%
+4%
2021
+21%
+6%
2022
+23%
+5%
2023
+16%
+2%
2024
+13%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in First Hill
CrimeGrade™ estimates First Hill has about 41 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about triple the rate for the US as a whole and more than double the rate for Seattle as a whole.
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 First Hill, about 87% 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 Seattle
The Seattle Police Department polices First Hill; these figures cover Seattle as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Seattle as a whole, 35% of aggravated assaults happen at a home, against 53% nationally. Robberies happen most often at stores and businesses: 46% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Robbery
Stores and businesses (46%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (35%)
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 First Hill and nearby neighborhoods
First Hill has less violent crime than 6 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from First Hill. Beside each violent crime CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, First Hill has more violent crime than 59% of them.
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, two set First Hill apart: it has 256 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby, and 240 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole. Places with both tend to report more robbery than places with only one of them, and it runs high 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 First Hill: B+ (66 of 100).256 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 99% of residents of US city neighborhoods
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more robbery.240 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 97% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 assault. 100% of residents here live in walkable areas.A+ (94 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 96% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery.99% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 90% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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 First Hill
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs First Hill about $65 million a year, or $4,154 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $14 million, or $920 per resident.
Billed cost of violent crime per resident, per year
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. First Hill is a good example: many people work in, shop in or visit it, so its crime per resident looks worse than its CrimeGrade™ suggests.
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
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.
