Frankfurt

Is Frankfurt safe?

Yes. Frankfurt am Main is Germany's financial capital and one of its busiest transport hubs, and for most visitors the worst that happens is a stolen phone. Police counted 7 completed killings in 2025 in a city of about 777,000 people, around 0.9 per 100,000, down from 17 a year earlier. Road deaths are low and the air is clean for a big city.

The headline crime number looks worse than the city feels. Police recorded 113,603 offences in 2025, 14,624 per 100,000 residents, higher than Berlin's rate. But that count includes offences found at Frankfurt Airport, such as forged documents, and crimes involving the hundreds of thousands of people who commute in or pass through every day, while the rate divides only by residents.

We score Frankfurt 81, just below Berlin and well below Munich, Germany's safest big city.

The Bahnhofsviertel

The district between the Hauptbahnhof and the banking towers is where Frankfurt's problems sit. It is small, central and full of hotels, restaurants and bars, and it also has Germany's best-known open drug scene. Police recorded 10,129 offences there in 2025, up 2.6%. Drug offences fell, but assaults rose 22% to 1,790, while robberies fell 19% to 362.

Police have put a lot into the area. It is a weapons-ban zone where officers seized 321 knives in 2025, new video cameras cover the main streets, and daily patrols are visible. The police say street robbery in the station district has halved in two years.

For visitors the practical rules are simple:

• Use Kaiserstraße, the main street from the station to the centre. It stays busy until late.
• Do not cut through the side streets north and west of it, such as Taunusstraße and Niddastraße, late at night.
• Keep your phone in your pocket when walking, and do not respond to people offering to sell you anything.

Most people who stay in a station hotel have no problems. If seeing open drug use would bother you, stay in Westend, Nordend or Sachsenhausen instead.

Pickpockets and theft

Pickpocketing fell 22.7% to 2,433 cases in 2025, about 310 per 100,000 residents, fewer than in Berlin but well above Munich. Distraction thefts fell to 719. The hot spots are the Hauptbahnhof, the Zeil shopping street and Hauptwache square, the S-Bahn lines S8 and S9 to the airport, and the airport terminals themselves. The Christmas market on the Römerberg draws dense crowds in December.

Keep bags zipped and in front of you on crowded trains and escalators, and do not leave a phone on a café table on the Zeil.

Violence, gangs and terrorism

Lethal violence is rare, but serious violence is not unknown. The police recorded 98 victims of attempted killings in 2025, up from 61, and blamed part of the rise on "violence as a service": arson and explosive attacks on bars and shops in the Rhine-Main region, ordered by criminal groups. Police counted 463 knife attacks, 196 of them threats or coercion, and a weapons-ban zone also covers the cider pubs of Alt-Sachsenhausen, where 55 knives were seized in 2025.

These attacks target people in the criminal world, not visitors. The wider risk is terrorism. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany, and names markets, crowded places and events. Expect barriers and armed police at the Christmas market and other big events.

Walking at night

Frankfurt was left out of the EU's 2023 survey of city residents, so we start from Stuttgart, the nearest German city in it, where 65% felt safe walking alone at night. Frankfurt's own last result, from 2019, was 60% in the city and 76% in their own area, a little below Stuttgart's 63% that year. Most German cities surveyed in both waves saw the share fall, so Frankfurt's figure today may well be lower.

In practice, the old town, Westend, Nordend, Bornheim and Sachsenhausen are calm at night. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn run late, and night buses fill the gap. Solo women generally move around the centre without trouble but should take a taxi or app ride rather than walk through the station district or along the dark riverside paths late at night.

Traffic, air and weather

Police counted 14 deaths on Frankfurt's city streets in 2025, the same as in 2024, about 1.8 per 100,000, and 9 more on the motorways around the city. Watch for cyclists and e-scooters on shared paths along the Main and in the centre.

Federal Environment Agency monitors measured annual PM2.5PM2.5Tiny 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 of 9.2 to 11 µg/m³ in 2025, within EU limits but about twice the WHO guideline. Tap water is safe and hospital care is excellent. EU visitors should bring an EHIC; others need travel insurance.

Natural hazards are mild: summer heatwaves, thunderstorms, and high water on the Main that sometimes floods the riverside paths.

How we scored it

Natural hazards (91) and traffic safety (89) are Frankfurt's strongest factors, and violent crime (84) is good despite gang violence in the region. Walking at night (70) is the weakest: Frankfurt was not in the EU's 2023 survey, so we use Stuttgart's result and deduct 4 points for Frankfurt's lower 2019 result and the Bahnhofsviertel, which sits next to the main station where many visitors stay. Theft and scams (72) reflect pickpocketing at the station, on the Zeil and at the airport.