Is NYC Safe? What the 2026 Crime Data Shows

Is NYC Safe Right Now? 2026 So Far

In January–September 2026 the NYPD recorded 86,052 major felonies (murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and vehicle theft), 6.5% fewer than the 92,032 in the same months of 2025. Five of the seven categories fell: murder (−19.4%), robbery (−12.2%), burglary (−13.5%), grand larceny (−5.8%) and vehicle theft (−12.5%). Rape (+5.0%) and felony assault (+0.4%) rose.

Source: NYPD complaint data via NYC Open Data, through September 30, 2026 • pulled 2026-11-12. Counted by the date each crime was reported.

The NYPD's weekly CompStat report, which runs later than the open data, counted 236 murders from January 1 through November 8, 2026, against 280 by the same date in 2025, and 549 shooting incidents against 612. The department's record-low claim for the first ten months of 2026 is in its release of November 9, 2026.

Hate crimes and rapes are rising. The same CompStat report counts 552 reported hate crimes through November 8, 2026 against 477 a year earlier (+15.7%). Rape counts are hard to compare across years: New York State broadened the legal definition in September 2024, and the NYPD says 20.6% of the rapes reported in the first ten months of 2026 fall under the wider definition and 24% happened in earlier years and were reported now. Felony assault is covered below.

Is NYC Getting Safer? 1990 to Today

Over the long run, far safer. The NYPD recorded 2,262 murders in 1990, the highest year in its published tables, and 309 in 2025, a fall of 86%. All seven major felonies together fell from 527,257 to 121,652 (77%).

The fall was not a straight line. Murders reached a low of 292 in 2017, rose to 488 in 2021, and have dropped 37% since. Of the years since 2000, only 2017 and 2018 had fewer murders than 2025. Total major felonies in 2025 were 27% above 2019 (95,606), the last year before the pandemic. Shooting incidents went from 1,562 in 2021 to 688 in 2025, the fewest in the NYPD's incident data, which starts in 2006.

The exception: felony assault

Felony assault is the NYPD's category for assaults charged as felonies, attempted murders included. The 29,838 recorded in 2025 are 83% above the 2008 low of 16,284, and more than in 1998 or any year since 2000. Of the years the NYPD publishes, only 1990 (44,122) and 1993 (41,121) were higher; 2025 is 32% below 1990.

Strangulation became a felony on November 11, 2010, and the NYPD files it under felony assault. Open data counts 4,749 strangulation complaints in 2025 (16% of all felony assaults) and none in 2008, so they account for 35% of the rise from 16,282 in 2008 to 29,841 in 2025. Without them, 2025 would have 25,092 felony assaults, still 54% above 2008; the data does not explain the remaining 8,810.

Much of the rest is not violence between strangers. The NYPD says 40% of felony assaults in the first ten months of 2026 were domestic violence and another 10.8% were assaults on police officers and other public service workers.

How Does NYC Compare With Other Big US Cities?

New York's 2025 murder rate, 3.6 per 100,000 residents, was the second lowest of the eight largest US cities. San Diego (1.9) was lower; Chicago was the highest at 16.0.

The FBI's 2025 count differs from the city's own by more than 5% for New York (287 against 309), Chicago (346 against 436), San Antonio (106 against 97) and San Diego (25 against 27), so the chart uses each city's own count. New York's rate is 3.6 on the NYPD's 309 murders and 3.3 on the FBI's 287; no city changes sides of New York on either count. San Antonio note: Counts reports, not victims, so a report with two victims counts once. San Diego note: The file codes 41 offences as 09A; 14 of them are vehicular manslaughter or hit-and-run charges and are left out. Cities record assaults too differently for a fair violent-crime ranking, so this page compares murder only.

What Kind of Crime Is It?

Of the 579,561 crimes reported to the NYPD in 2025, 35% were theft or burglary with no force used, 25% were misdemeanor assault or harassment, and 8.2% (47,291) were violent felonies: murder, rape, robbery or felony assault.

What are the odds?

The NYPD recorded 47,291 violent felonies in 2025 in a city of 8,584,629 residents: 551 per 100,000 residents, or one for every 182 residents in a year. 63% of them were felony assaults and 32% robberies. Treat that as a rough guide, not a personal risk. Four things bend it, in different directions:

• Overstates the risk from strangers: domestic assaults are in the count (see felony assault above).
• Overstates a resident's risk: victims include commuters and some of the 64.5 million people who visited in 2025 (New York City Tourism + Conventions), but only residents are in the denominator.
• Understates it: crimes nobody reports to the police are missing, and the share differs by crime type.
• Hides the spread: the citywide figure averages precincts whose rates differ 13-fold.

Where Does the Risk Concentrate? Boroughs and Precincts

The Bronx had the highest violent-felony rate in 2025, 1,017 per 100,000 residents, and Staten Island the lowest, 282. The citywide rate was 551.

Borough averages hide most of the variation. A precinct is one of the NYPD's 78 patrol districts; the table below lists the areas each one covers. The ten precincts with the most violent felonies recorded 31% of the city's total in 2025 and held 16% of its residents; 11 precincts recorded no murder. Of the 74 that can be given a rate per resident, 44 were below the citywide figure, and the highest rate was 13 times the lowest.

Source: NYPD complaint data via NYC Open Data, complaints reported in 2025 • pulled 2026-11-12; 2020 Census population by precinct. Excludes the two Midtown precincts and Central Park, where most people present are not residents. A precinct rate describes reported crime in an area, not the people who live there.

For rates by neighborhood rather than precinct, see the NYC crime rate tables; for one borough in depth, Is Brooklyn Safe and Is the Bronx Safe; for upper Manhattan, the Harlem neighborhood page.

Is NYC Safe for Tourists? Midtown, Times Square and Central Park

The two Midtown precincts that cover Times Square, the Theatre District and Koreatown recorded 26,554 crimes in 2025. 49% were theft or burglary and 5.9% (1,562, about 30 a week) were violent felonies, including 9 murders.

Source: NYPD Complaint Data Historic via NYC Open Data, complaints reported in 2025 • pulled 2026-11-12. Theft: share of the precinct's reported crimes.

Of the 10,238 larcenies (thefts without force) reported in the two Midtown precincts in 2025, 5,695 or 56% were in premises the NYPD codes as a store, 15% on the street, 7% in bars, restaurants and hotels, and 6% in the subway and other transit. “Store” here means these NYPD premise types: department store (1,745), chain store (1,391), drug store (1,282), clothing/boutique (924), food supermarket (83), grocery/bodega (72), jewelry (60), shoe (33), small merchant (33), variety store (15), telecomm. store (12), photo/copy (12), liquor store (9), candy store (8), store unclassified (5), book/card (5), smoke shop (3), dry cleaner/laundry (2) and video store (1). A theft in a store can be shoplifting or theft from a customer; the data does not separate them.

Is Central Park safe during the day?

The Central Park precinct recorded 339 crimes in all of 2025, fewer than one a day, of which 38 were violent felonies: 29 began between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and 9 outside those hours. The counts are not adjusted for how many people are in the park at each hour.

Is NYC Safe at Night?

Of the 14,509 violent felonies recorded on the street in 2025, about 40 a day in a city of 8.6 million, 43% began between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., 33% between 6 p.m. and midnight, and 24% between midnight and 6 a.m.

Summed across the week, the busiest hour of the day is 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. (857 street violent felonies in 2025). The busiest single hours of the week are in weekend small hours: Sunday 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. had 189, and four of the five busiest weekday-and-hour slots fall between midnight and 5 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday. Between midnight and 5 a.m. there were about 13.8 street violent felonies per Saturday or Sunday night across the whole city, against 6.4 on a weekday night. Counting every location, the day, evening and overnight split for all 47,291 violent felonies was 46%, 33% and 22%.

These are counts, not odds: far fewer people are outside at 3 a.m. than at 3 p.m., and police data cannot say how much higher the risk per person is then. 42% of violent felonies in 2025 were recorded inside a home (an apartment building, house or public-housing residence) and 31% on the street.

Is the NYC Subway Safe?

The NYPD's Transit Bureau recorded 2,166 major felonies in 2025 against 1.28 billion subway rides: 1.69 per million rides, or one for every 592,000 rides. In 2021 the figure was 2.37 per million.

53% of the 2025 total was grand larceny, the felony grade of theft, which involves no force; 27% was felony assault and 19% robbery. The Transit Bureau recorded 4 murders in 2025. In January–September 2026 it recorded 1,626 major felonies against 1,614 in the same months of 2025 (+0.7%), while ridership rose 2.4%: 1.67 per million rides against 1.70.

What the Numbers Mean for a Visit

• Stores and crowds. Theft is 49% of reported crime in Midtown, and 56% of Midtown larcenies happen in stores. Keep a phone or bag closed and in front of you while shopping, and off restaurant tables and chair backs (7% of Midtown larcenies were in bars, restaurants and hotels).
• Weekend small hours. Sunday 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. is the single busiest hour for street violence in the year's data, and Saturday and Sunday nights between midnight and 5 a.m. average 2.2 times the weekday-night count. Plan the trip home for that window: a cab, or company on the walk.
• The subway. One major felony per 592,000 rides in 2025, and 53% of those were grand larceny, theft without force. Keep valuables zipped away on a crowded train.

Moving to NYC: Compare Neighborhoods, Then Check the Address

A citywide answer is the wrong resolution for choosing a home. DwellCheck publishes reported crime per resident for 127 neighborhoods. These had the lowest rates of all reported crime, per 1,000 residents, in the 12 months from June 30, 2025 to June 29, 2026 (citywide: 63.4):

• Borough Park, Brooklyn: 14.9 per 1,000 (crime data)
• Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn: 16.3 per 1,000 (crime data)
• Great Kills, Staten Island: 19.7 per 1,000 (crime data)
• Oakwood, Staten Island: 20.0 per 1,000 (crime data)
• Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan: 22.5 per 1,000 (crime data)
• Little Neck, Queens: 22.8 per 1,000 (crime data)

The full ranking is in the NYC crime rate guide. For one borough at a time, see the safest neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island, or the safest NYC neighborhoods, ranked by crimes within a 300-meter walk. On water rather than crime: is NYC tap water safe.

What This Data Cannot Tell You

• Reported is not actual. Every figure is a crime reported to the police; the share that goes unreported differs by crime type and by place.
• Who the victims were. The public data does not say whether a victim was a resident, a commuter or a tourist, or whether victim and offender knew each other.
• Risk per person present. Counts by hour and by precinct are not adjusted for how many people were there.
• How safe a place feels. Disorder and unreported harassment shape how safe people feel, and none of it is in these counts.
• Recent figures move. 2026 counts are preliminary. The NYPD revises them as cases are reclassified.

Method and Sources

1. NYPD complaint data. NYPD Complaint Data Historic (qgea-i56i) and NYPD Complaint Data Current (5uac-w243) on NYC Open Data, through September 30, 2026, pulled 2026-11-12, counted by the year a crime was reported. Its 2025 citywide total of major felonies from this data (121,756) is within 0.1% of the NYPD's published 121,652.
2. Long-run counts. NYPD Seven Major Felony Offenses 2000–2025 (from the NYPD's historical crime data page) for every year from 2000; the “historical perspective” block of the citywide CompStat report for 1990, 1993 and 1998 and for the year to date through November 8, 2026.
3. Other cities. Each city's own 2025 murder count, from New York City Police, Los Angeles Police, Chicago Police, Houston Police, Phoenix Police, Philadelphia Police, San Antonio Police and San Diego Police, divided by the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 estimate and checked against the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
4. Rates. Borough rates divide 2025 counts by the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 county estimates. Precinct rates divide by 2020 Census population inside each precinct; precincts with fewer than 20,000 residents, the two Midtown precincts and Central Park get no rate. The 116th Precinct, carved out of the 105th, is rated together with it.
5. Crime types. “Violent felonies” are murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and felony assault. “Theft and burglary” groups the NYPD offence categories petit larceny, grand larceny, other offenses related to theft, grand and petit larceny of a motor vehicle, burglary, theft-fraud, theft of services, possession of stolen property, unauthorized use of a vehicle, jostling and burglar's tools. Strangulation is felony-assault complaints whose NYPD description begins “strangulation”.
6. Time of day. The weekday and hour an offence began; all 47,291 violent felonies reported in 2025 have a valid time. “Home” means the three residence premises types.
7. Subway. Major felonies in NYPD Transit Bureau jurisdiction divided by the MTA's estimated subway ridership (MTA Daily Ridership, data.ny.gov). Adding the NYPD's own October count to the January–September figure reproduces the department's published ten-month total to within 0.2%.
8. Statements. Record lows, the domestic-violence share of felony assaults and the rape definition change are from the NYPD release of November 9, 2026. Visitor numbers are from New York City Tourism + Conventions.
9. Neighborhood rates: method on the crime rate guide.

Frequently Asked Questions