New York City's murder rate is 4.4 per 100,000. The national average is 5.1 per 100,000. By the single metric most people use to judge a city's safety, NYC is below average — safer than the U.S. median on homicide. That is an accurate statement and it is worth stating clearly, because most of the coverage does not lead with it.
Here is the rest of the data. NYC's violent crime rate, per FBI Uniform Crime Reporting methodology, is 671 per 100,000 — 81% above the national average of 370.8/100k [per BJS, Nov 2025]. Felony assaults rose 5% in 2024 and have risen for six consecutive years — now sitting 40% above 2019 pre-pandemic levels [per Vital City, Feb 2026]. Shootings in 2024 were still 16.3% above pre-pandemic levels despite a 7.3% year-over-year decline [per NYPD CompStat, Jan 2025].
Both of those things are true simultaneously. NYC is safer than most people think on murder. It is more dangerous than most people realize on assault and overall violent crime. Anyone making a decision about living in or visiting New York — or anyone following the current news cycle about the new mayor's public safety approach — needs the full picture, not the number that confirms a prior.
The 2024 Numbers in Full
The table below uses NYPD CompStat full-year 2024 data released January 6, 2025, covering all five boroughs against an 8.47 million population estimate. Rates calculated from those primary figures. The FBI UCR methodology uses a different population base and crime-categorization approach, producing the 671/100k violent crime rate; both figures are cited where applicable.
| Crime Category | 2024 Count | YoY Change | Rate / 100k | vs. National Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murder | 377 | ▼ −3.6% | 4.4 | Below (5.1 natl) |
| Rape | 1,748 | ▲ +18.9% | 20.6 | — |
| Robbery | 16,556 | ▼ −2.3% | 195.3 | — |
| Felony Assault | 29,417 | ▲ +5.0% | 347.0 | ↑ 6th straight yr |
| Violent Crime Total (NYPD) | 48,098 | ▲ +5.0% | 567.3 | Above (370.8 natl) |
| Violent Crime (FBI UCR) | — | — | 671 | +81% above natl |
| Shooting Incidents | 903 | ▼ −7.3% | 10.7 | +16.3% vs 2019 |
| Burglary | 13,029 | ▼ −5.7% | 153.7 | — |
| Grand Larceny | 48,423 | ▼ −5.0% | 571.2 | — |
| Grand Larceny Auto | 14,194 | ▼ −10.3% | 167.4 | — |
| Property Crime Total (NYPD) | 75,646 | ▼ −6.1% | 892.3 | Below (1,835 natl) |
| Total Index Crime | 123,744 | ▼ −2.9% | — | — |
Source: NYPD CompStat, Jan 6, 2025 · nyc.gov/nypd · National averages: BJS CKLE24, Nov 2025 · bjs.ojp.gov
The rape figure deserves a specific note: the 18.9% year-over-year increase is partly a product of New York's 2024 expanded rape statute, which broadened the legal definition of what constitutes rape under state law. Part of that increase reflects real incidents; part reflects reclassification. NYPD has flagged this in its own reporting [per NYPD CompStat, Jan 2025].
The Felony Assault Problem
Murder is easy to track, hard to hide, and tends to dominate the conversation. But assault — specifically felony assault — is the structural crime problem in New York City right now. 29,417 felony assaults in 2024 at a rate of 347 per 100,000 [per NYPD CompStat, Jan 2025]. That figure has risen every year since 2019. Six consecutive years. It is now 40.4% above pre-pandemic levels [per Vital City, Jan 2025].
This matters for two reasons. First, felony assault is the crime category most likely to affect a working resident — in transit, in a bar, during a street interaction that escalates. Second, the trend line is moving in the wrong direction while murder moves in the right one. NYC's crime picture in 2024 is a split: the deadliest crimes are declining, the most common serious violent crimes are rising. Both are real. Neither cancels the other.
The persistence of the assault trend also puts the current policy debate in context. Felony assaults rose for the sixth consecutive year in 2025 — defying national trends — per Vital City 2026. This is not a response to any specific mayor's policy. It is a structural pattern that will require sustained attention regardless of who holds office.
How NYC Compares: The Murder Rate Paradox
The gap between NYC's murder rate and its violent crime rate is an important data point for anyone moving from another U.S. city. Per the RIT/CPSI 2024 Homicide Statistics study covering 24 U.S. cities, NYC at 4.4–4.7 per 100,000 compares favorably to peer large cities [per RIT/CPSI, Feb 2025]:
| City | Murder Rate (per 100k, 2024) | vs. NYC |
|---|---|---|
| New York City | 4.4 | — |
| National Average (U.S.) | 5.1 | +16% above NYC |
| Los Angeles | 7.0 | +59% above NYC |
| Chicago | ~16–18 | ~3–4× NYC |
| Baltimore | ~35–40 | ~8–9× NYC |
Sources: NYPD CompStat Jan 2025 · RIT/CPSI 2024 Homicide Study · BJS CKLE24 · LAPD Mar 2025
NYC's homicide rate of 4.4/100k is a genuine differentiator among major American cities. It is one of the primary reasons the city continues to attract residents despite its elevated overall violent crime figures. The nuance is that homicide and violent crime are not the same measurement. You can have a low murder rate and a high assault rate simultaneously — that is precisely what NYC's data shows.
NYC's violent crime rate varies dramatically across its 302 square miles. Crown Heights is not TriBeCa. East New York is not the Upper West Side. The address-level number is the decision-relevant one.
What Mamdani Inherited — and What He Cut
Zohran Mamdani took office January 1, 2026, becoming the youngest NYC mayor since 1892 and the city's first Muslim and first South Asian mayor [per NPR, Nov 4, 2025]. He inherited a city where overall index crime was trending down, murder was at its lowest since the pandemic, and felony assaults were on their sixth consecutive year of increases. What he did with that inheritance is now a matter of public record.
The campaign promise and the policy reality diverged in one significant area: funding for the Office of Community Safety. Mamdani campaigned on $1.1 billion for a new community safety infrastructure — mental health response, gun violence intervention, domestic violence services. The actual executive order funding the office (EO No. 15, March 19, 2026) came in at $260 million — a 76% reduction from the campaign figure, driven by NYC's multi-billion-dollar budget deficit [per New York Times, Mar 19, 2026].
Mamdani Promised
- $1.1B for community safety infrastructure
- 5,000 additional NYPD officers (inherited Adams plan)
- Expanded B-HEARD mental health response
- New Office of Community Safety with full legislative backing
What Was Delivered (Q1 2026)
- $260M for OCS — 76% below campaign promise
- NYPD hiring expansion cancelled due to budget constraints
- $22M cut proposed to NYPD's $6.4B budget
- Jessica Tisch retained as Police Commissioner (continuity)
The decision to retain Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is the clearest signal of continuity in the Mamdani approach. Tisch was appointed by Eric Adams and is the architect of the precision policing strategy that drove the 2024 crime reductions. Mamdani's decision to keep her in place rather than install a new commissioner aligned with his political base was, per reporting at the time, a deliberate signal to the NYPD and to markets that public safety infrastructure would not be disrupted [per New York Times, Apr 9, 2026].
What he did cut matters, too. NYPD is already operating below authorized staffing levels — major crimes are up 26.9% since 2018 while officer headcount has declined, per analysis from the Manhattan Institute. Cancelling the planned 5,000-officer expansion compounds an existing deficit. The $22 million proposed budget cut is small relative to NYPD's $6.4 billion total budget, but it is directionally significant given the staffing context.
Q1 2026 Under Mamdani: The Data So Far
Three months of data does not establish a trend. But Q1 2026 produced results that are worth noting without overstating. Per NYC Mayor's Office, April 2, 2026:
The subway robbery figure is the one data point in Q1 2026 that cut against the headline narrative. Transit crime overall was down 1% in Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025 [per NYC Mayor's Office, Apr 2, 2026]. But subway robberies specifically were up 15%. And in April 2026, a machete attack at Grand Central Terminal renewed commuter anxiety despite the overall statistical picture showing improvement. The perception gap on subway safety is real and persistent — 2025 was the safest subway year since 2009, per Vital City, but commuter confidence has not tracked the data.
The Pre-Pandemic Baseline Problem
Index crime comparisons in NYC almost always anchor to 2019 — the last "normal" year before the pandemic. That baseline tells a useful story. Total citywide major crime in 2024 was close to its highest level since 2007 despite the 2.9% year-over-year decline [per Vital City, Jan 2025]. All-offense crime (felonies plus misdemeanors plus violations) totaled approximately 590,000 incidents in 2024 — about 25% above pre-pandemic levels [per Vital City, Jan 2025]. Murders and shootings, even after significant post-pandemic decline, remain 18.3% and 16.3% above 2019 levels respectively.
The 2024 data, in other words, shows a city that has improved from the 2021–2022 peak but has not returned to pre-pandemic baselines. The direction is correct. The magnitude of remaining elevation is still meaningful for anyone making a real-world location decision.
Borough-Level Variance: Why the Citywide Rate Is a Starting Point
NYC's 671/100k violent crime rate (FBI UCR) or 567/100k rate (NYPD CompStat) is a five-borough average of an extremely heterogeneous geography. A 2024 rate that covers Staten Island's lowest-crime precincts and the Bronx's highest-crime precincts with a single number is statistically honest but practically incomplete for anyone choosing a specific neighborhood or address.
NYPD CompStat data, published weekly, breaks crime counts by borough and by precinct. The pattern that emerges from precinct-level data is consistent across years: the Bronx carries the highest violent crime burden relative to population, followed by Brooklyn and then Manhattan. Queens and Staten Island run below the citywide average. Within each borough, precinct-level variance is large enough that adjacent neighborhoods can differ by multiples on specific crime categories.
Manhattan's figures are particularly distorted by the Central Park Precinct and Midtown precincts, which aggregate commercial-district crime against a daytime population that dwarfs the residential count. A resident of Midtown who works elsewhere is exposed to a different risk profile than the reported precinct rate suggests.
Knowing the Bronx runs above the city average tells you something. Knowing what a specific address on a specific block looks like tells you what you need to make a decision.
Property Crime: The Underreported Story
NYC's property crime rate of 892 per 100,000 [per NYPD CompStat, Jan 2025] is actually below the national average of 1,835 per 100,000 [per BJS, Nov 2025]. This is the inverse of the violent crime picture — NYC is above the national average on violent crime and below it on property crime. Both data points are surprising to most people who haven't looked at the primary sources.
The property crime figure needs a caveat: NYPD's CompStat definition of property crime is narrower than the FBI UCR definition, which catches more categories of theft and property damage. The FBI UCR figure for NYC property crime in 2024 is approximately 2,368 per 100,000 — above the national average. The methodology difference is not a rounding error; it produces meaningfully different absolute numbers depending on which definition is applied.
What This Means If You're Moving to or Visiting NYC
The statpsych framing matters here. A 671/100k violent crime rate means 1 in 149 NYC residents per year is a victim of a violent crime under FBI UCR definitions. Over three years in the city: cumulative annual probability stacks to roughly 1 in 51. Over five years: approximately 1 in 30. These are city averages — they are not your specific building's number, and in NYC, building-level and block-level variance is the largest variable in the calculation.
For visitors, the relevant geography is much smaller: which neighborhoods, which transit routes, which times of day. The tourist experience in midtown Manhattan, Battery Park City, or Brooklyn Heights is materially different from a statistical standpoint than a late-night subway commute through certain Bronx or Brooklyn precincts. The citywide average applies to people who live and work and commute across the full city geography. A tourist staying in a specific hotel corridor for three days is operating in a much narrower geographic risk band.
For people considering relocation, the question the data does not answer at the city level is: which specific address, in which specific precinct, at what building density, with what transit exposure? That is the number that predicts your experience. The 671/100k is the starting prior. Your address is the updated posterior.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is New York City safe to live in 2025 and 2026?
Depends on the metric. NYC's murder rate (4.4/100k in 2024) is below the national average of 5.1/100k — making it safer than most large American cities on that single measure. Total violent crime is a different story: 671 per 100,000 per FBI UCR, 81% above the national average of 370.8/100k.
In 2025, murders fell another ~19% to historic lows and shooting incidents hit their lowest level since NYPD began recording in 1993, per Vital City (Feb 2026). At the same time, felony assaults rose for the sixth consecutive year. So in 2026: NYC is safer than it was in 2021–2022. It is not back to pre-pandemic baselines on most crime categories. Whether that makes it "safe" depends on your risk tolerance and, more specifically, your specific address's block-level data.
What is NYC's murder rate compared to other cities?
NYC's 2024 murder rate is 4.4 per 100,000, below the U.S. national average of 5.1/100k (BJS, Nov 2025). Los Angeles comes in at 7.0/100k. Chicago runs approximately 16–18/100k. Baltimore is roughly 35–40/100k. By homicide rate, NYC is one of the safer large American cities — a fact that surprises many people whose mental model of NYC crime was formed in the 1990s.
The caveat is that murder rate is one metric. Overall violent crime rate — which includes assault, robbery, and rape — tells a different story. NYC at 671/100k (FBI UCR) is 81% above the national average, making it comparatively more dangerous on the broader crime picture. Both numbers are accurate. They measure different aspects of the same city.
What has Mamdani done about crime in NYC?
Zohran Mamdani took office January 1, 2026. In his first 100 days, the key public safety actions were: (1) retained Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, providing continuity with the precision policing strategy; (2) created the Office of Community Safety via Executive Order No. 15 (March 19, 2026), funded at $260M — 76% below his $1.1B campaign promise; (3) cancelled Eric Adams's plan to hire 5,000 additional NYPD officers; (4) proposed a $22M cut to NYPD's $6.4B budget.
Q1 2026 crime data showed murders down 28% year-over-year to the lowest Q1 count in NYPD history. Subway robberies were up 15% in the same period. Three months of data is not sufficient to attribute outcomes to any policy change — the trends that produced Q1 2026's results were underway before Mamdani took office. The more meaningful test will be 12–18 months of data under the new staffing and funding structure he has put in place.
Is the NYC subway safe in 2026?
2025 was the safest year on the NYC subway since 2009, per Vital City (Feb 2026). Transit robberies hit an all-time low that year. That is the statistical picture. The commuter perception picture is different: high-profile incidents — including a machete attack at Grand Central in April 2026 — have kept anxiety elevated despite the aggregate trend.
In Q1 2026, transit crime was down 1% overall versus Q1 2025. But subway robberies specifically were up 15% year-to-date. NYPD added 150 officers to transit in March 2026, which contributed to reversing the January–February spike. The picture is: systemwide transit crime trending lower over a multi-year horizon, with robbery as a specific subcategory bucking that trend in early 2026. Late-night travel on certain lines and in certain boroughs carries different risk than peak-hour travel on central Manhattan routes.
Which NYC boroughs have the highest crime rates?
Consistent with multi-year NYPD CompStat data, the Bronx carries the highest violent crime burden per capita among the five boroughs, followed by Brooklyn. Manhattan's headline figures are complicated by the fact that its commercial precincts generate high incident counts against a daytime transient population rather than a residential base — this inflates the raw numbers. Queens and Staten Island run below the citywide average on most crime categories.
Within each borough, precinct-level variance is large. The 40th Precinct in the South Bronx posts meaningfully higher rates than the 50th Precinct in Riverdale, despite both being in the Bronx. Neighborhood-level labels like "Brooklyn" or "the Bronx" are too broad to be useful for address-level decisions. The precinct-level data published weekly in NYPD CompStat is the most granular public data available for borough-level comparison.
Is NYC crime getting better or worse?
The honest answer: depends on the category and the baseline year. Overall index crime fell 2.9% in 2024 versus 2023. Murder fell 3.6%. Shootings fell 7.3%. Property crime fell 6.1%. Those are improvements. In 2025, murders fell another ~19% to historic lows and shooting incidents hit their lowest level in recorded NYPD history. Those are genuine gains.
In the other direction: felony assaults rose 5% in 2024 and have risen for six consecutive years — now 40% above 2019. All-offense crime remains 25% above pre-pandemic levels. Subway robberies ticked up 15% in Q1 2026. NYC is better than 2021–2022 on almost every measure. It is not back to pre-pandemic baselines. The answer to "getting better or worse" is: better on the deadliest crimes, structurally elevated on assault, and not yet back to where it was before 2020 on the aggregate.
Get the SafeScore for Any NYC Address
Citywide averages mask neighborhood-level variance. A 671/100k city average is a median of a highly skewed distribution. Where a specific address falls in that distribution is the actionable number.
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- NYPD CompStat — 2024 Full-Year Crime Statistics, released January 6, 2025. Murder 377 (4.4/100k); Felony Assault 29,417 (+5.0%); Total Violent Crime 48,098; Total Index Crime 123,744 (−2.9%); Shooting Incidents 903 (−7.3%) · nyc.gov/site/nypd
- Bureau of Justice Statistics — Crime Known to Law Enforcement 2024 (CKLE24), released November 2025. National violent crime rate 370.8/100k; national murder rate 5.1/100k; national property crime rate 1,835.1/100k · bjs.ojp.gov/document/ckle24.pdf
- plaincrime.com / FBI UCR Table 8 — NYC 2024 violent crime rate 671/100k per FBI Uniform Crime Reporting methodology · plaincrime.com/city/new-york-ny
- Vital City — State of NYC Crime 2024, January 2025. Felony assaults 40.4% above 2019; all-offense crime ~25% above pre-pandemic; murders and shootings 18.3% and 16.3% above 2019 · vitalcitynyc.org
- Vital City — NYC Crime Trends and Statistics, February 2026. Felony assaults rose for sixth consecutive year in 2025; 2025 subway safest year since 2009; shooting incidents at historic low · vitalcitynyc.org
- Brennan Center for Justice — 2025 Trends in Crime and Safety in New York City, November 2025. Murder fell ~19% in 2025 vs. 2024; historic lows · brennancenter.org
- NYC Mayor's Office — Q1 2026 Crime Press Conference, April 2, 2026. Murders down 28% YoY; record low Q1 in NYPD history; subway robberies up 15% YTD; Bronx −9.4% · nyc.gov/mayors-office
- NYC Mayor's Office — Mamdani First 100 Days, April 7, 2026. Office of Community Safety $260M; B-HEARD expansion; body-cam policy; sanctuary city reaffirmation · nyc.gov/mayors-office
- New York Times — Mamdani Creates Office of Community Safety, March 19, 2026. $260M funding vs. $1.1B campaign promise; budget deficit constraints · nytimes.com
- New York Times — Mamdani NYPD and Commissioner Tisch relationship, April 9, 2026 · nytimes.com
- RIT / Center for Public Safety Initiatives — 2024 Homicide Statistics for 24 U.S. Cities, February 2025. NYC homicide rate 4.7/100k vs. 8.09M population estimate · rit.edu/liberalarts
- NPR — Mamdani wins NYC mayor race, November 4, 2025 · npr.org