Boston

Is Boston safe?

Yes. For a visitor, Boston is one of the safest big cities in the US. Police counted 31 homicides in 2025, more than the record-low 24 of 2024 but still the second-lowest total in at least twenty years. Its streets had the lowest traffic death rate of any US city we score in 2025.

The catch is everyday theft. Boston's property crime rate is a little above the national average, and crowded trains and the Faneuil Hall area are where bags and phones go missing. We score the city 79, just below New York.

How much violent crime is there?

Less than its size and history might suggest, and very little of it touches visitors. About 4.6 people per 100,000 were killed in 2025, which puts Boston at the edge of the 1 to 4 band where we score San Francisco and New York. Nineteen of the 31 victims were shot. Commissioner Michael Cox said the total was still 16% below the city's five-year average.

Wider violence is less flattering. The FBI's figures give Boston 583 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2025, against 330 for the country as a whole, driven by aggravated assaults (2,487 in the police survey). Most of this happens in parts of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan, not around the hotels and sights. Police said in January 2026 that most violent crime was below the five-year average, with domestic aggravated assault the exception.

Theft on the T and in the old town

Pickpocketing in Boston is opportunistic rather than organised. The places to keep a hand on your bag are the ones every visitor goes to:

• Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market on summer weekends
• Downtown Crossing, especially the Orange and Red Line platforms
• Green Line trains to Fenway on Red Sox game days
• North Station before and after Celtics and Bruins games

Leave nothing in a parked car, above all in garages near the Seaport and Fenway. Boston has few of the tourist scams common in Times Square or Rome. The usual problem is unlicensed drivers offering rides at Logan Airport; use the taxi rank or the ride-app pickup area.

Where to stay, and where to skip at night

Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the North End, the Seaport and the South End are good bases, with restaurants open late and plenty of people on the streets. Cambridge across the river, around Harvard and Kendall Squares, is also calm. Downtown Crossing is busy by day and quieter late at night.

The one area to know about is "Mass and Cass", the blocks around Massachusetts Avenue, Melnea Cass Boulevard and Southampton Street near Boston Medical Center. It became the centre of the city's open drug scene. The city cleared the tent encampment in 2023 and police say violent crime there is now falling, but it is still unpleasant and sometimes aggressive. It sits between the South End and Roxbury, so check the walk if your hotel or rental is near the medical campus.

Streets, air and storms

Boston drivers have a rough reputation, but the death toll is low. A City Council resolution from July 2026, citing MassDOT and the city's Vision Zero dashboard, counts 11 traffic deaths in 2025, about 1.6 per 100,000, most of them pedestrians. The city's own Vision Zero page says more than 10 deaths a year is typical, so we treat 2025 as a good year rather than the new normal. The narrow, crooked streets downtown keep speeds low; the danger is on wider, faster roads such as Blue Hill Avenue and the approaches to the expressways.

The air is clean. The EPA's Boston monitors averaged 6.0 to 6.8 µg/m³ of fine particlesPM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary over 2023 to 2025, among the lowest of the US cities we score, and tap water from the Quabbin Reservoir is safe. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's are world-class, but an emergency room visit without insurance can cost thousands of dollars.

Weather is the bigger hazard. Nor'easters bring heavy snow and coastal flooding from October to April. On 4 January 2018 the tide in Boston Harbor reached 15.16 feet, beating the record from the Blizzard of 1978, and seawater flowed into the Seaport and along the waterfront. Summer heat waves are shorter than in Washington but still dangerous on the brick streets of the old town. Hurricanes rarely reach Boston with full force.

How to stay safe in Boston

• Keep phones away from the doors on T trains, and bags in front of you on platforms.
• Do not walk through the Mass and Cass area after dark.
• In winter, check the forecast before driving; snow emergencies close parking on main roads and cars get towed.
• If a coastal flood warning is issued, stay away from Long Wharf, the Seaport waterfront and low streets in East Boston.

For guns, healthcare costs and entry rules, read our United States page. If you are heading north, Montreal scores a little higher.

How we scored it

Traffic safety (88) and health and environment (88) are the strongest factors: few road deaths, clean air and some of the best hospitals anywhere. Theft and scams (70) is the weakest, because Boston's property crime rate is above the US average. Violent crime (76) sits just below the 1 to 4 per 100,000 band, as homicides rose from 24 to 31 and assaults stay high for a rich city.