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Most Dangerous Neighborhoods in San Diego (2024)

San Diego's open crime data has no reliable neighborhood population figure, so these SDPD beats are ranked by severity-weighted reported incident volume, not a per-person rate. The SDPD beats at the top of this list have the most reported incidents relative to other San Diego SDPD beats.

Areas ranked
132
SDPD beats
Safest
Beat 245
Most dangerous
Beat 521

Volume, not a safety rate. SDPD beat resident population is not reliably available for a per-100k rate, so no safety grade is published for any zone (see /crime-rate/methodology §6.6). The geographic unit is the SDPD beat (a policing/analysis boundary, not a resident-population neighborhood). relativeIndex ranks each zone by its VIOLENCE-WEIGHTED reported-incident volume (violent incidents weighted 3x property) against the other San Diego zones — it is NOT population-adjusted and must not be read as a safety rate. Offenses are grouped into three coarse buckets (violent / property / other) via a keyword classifier.

Ranked highest reported volume first

Not the same SDPD beats as the safest neighborhoods in san diego list.

Showing the top 40 of 132 SDPD beats.

Protecting yourself in San Diego

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Most dangerous neighborhoods in San Diego — FAQ

What is the most dangerous neighborhood in San Diego?
By 2024 reported crime volume, Beat 521 ranks as the most dangerous SDPD beat in San Diego in this data. See the full ranking above for how every SDPD beat compares.
How are San Diego neighborhoods ranked?
San Diego publishes crime by SDPD beat without a resident-population figure, so we rank by severity-weighted reported incident volume (violent incidents weighted more heavily than property) relative to other San Diego SDPD beats — not a per-100,000 rate. It shows where incidents concentrate, not per-person risk.
Does this predict how safe a specific street is?
No. This ranks whole SDPD beats, which can contain very different blocks. Use it to compare areas at a glance, then look at street-level detail, visit, and check local providers before deciding.

No area has zero risk

A high Crime Index score means lower reported crime relative to other US cities — it is not a guarantee of safety. Reported crime is not the same as actual crime. Research on the gap between crime that occurs and crime that gets reported to police — often called the "dark figure" of crime — estimates that roughly 40% of violent crime and about a third of property crime go unreported each year. Every index built on official statistics, including this one, necessarily undercounts real crime. That gap is exactly why homicide — the offense with the smallest dark figure — anchors the calculation instead of a more commonly reported but less reliable category like theft.

Scores on this page reflect FBI-reported data for 2024. See the full methodology →