Methodology

How the grades work

Data sources

Incident data comes from the Chicago Police Department’s official open-data incident feed (data.cityofchicago.org), covering all reported crime incidents from 2024 through August 11, 2026. Population comes from the US Census 2020 block-group counts. Boundaries are the City of Chicago’s official community areas. Data was last refreshed August 20, 2026; we refresh monthly.

The formula

For each community area we compute, over the trailing 12 months:

• Overall rate — reported incidents per 1,000 residents
• Violent rate — homicide, sex abuse, assault with a dangerous weapon, and robbery per 1,000 residents
• Composite score — violent rate × 0.7 + overall rate × 0.3

Community areas are ranked by composite score and graded on percentile bands: top 10% = A, to 30% = B+, to 50% = B, to 70% = C, to 90% = D, bottom 10% = F. Grades compare Chicago community areas to each other — an F does not mean it is unsafe to walk there, and an A does not mean crime never happens.

Honest limitations

• Reported incidents only. Crimes that are never reported to CPD are not in the data, and reporting rates differ by community area and offense type.
• Daytime population isn’t counted. Areas with few residents but heavy visitor traffic (downtown, nightlife strips, parks) show inflated per-resident rates. We flag community areas under 3,000 residents.
• Incident ≠ conviction. The feed records reports, not case outcomes.
• Block coordinates are approximate. CPD anonymizes locations to the block level.

What this is — and isn’t

SafeNeighborhoods is an informational research tool for people making their own housing, travel, and investment decisions. It is not legal, real-estate, or lending advice; it is not a prediction of risk to any individual; and it must not be used to make decisions about tenants, borrowers, or employees. Housing decisions are governed by the Fair Housing Act — this site grades places, never people.