Granada

Is Granada safe?

Yes. Granada has less crime than any other Spanish city we score. The Interior Ministry counted no homicides in the city in 2025 and two in 2024, and violent robberies fell 9.1% to 330. Thefts came to about 1,520 per 100,000 residents, below Seville, Madrid and Málaga.

The catch is underground. Granada sits in one of the most earthquake-prone areas of mainland Spain, and in August 2026 two quakes of magnitude 4.8 struck a few kilometres south of the city. They caused only minor damage, but they are the reason natural hazards is Granada's weakest score. We rate Granada 82 overall, level with Málaga. Our Spain page covers the rest of the country.

Earthquakes: what the August 2026 series means

Since 14 August 2026 the national geographic institute (IGN) has recorded a series of shallow earthquakes around Alhendín, Gójar and La Zubia, 2 to 12 km south of the city centre. By early September it had counted 1,693 quakes, most too small to feel, but 150 were felt. The two largest, both magnitude 4.8, came on 14 and 18 August and were felt in more than 500 towns, as far away as the Murcia and Madrid regions. The IGN reported some non-structural damage and falling objects near the epicentre.

This is not new. A similar series near Santa Fe and Atarfe, west of the city, produced more than 3,000 quakes between December 2020 and August 2021, six of them between magnitude 4 and 5. The IGN describes the Granada basin as one of the most seismically active and hazardous zones of the Iberian Peninsula, and lists far bigger historical quakes: one south of Granada in 1431 and the Arenas del Rey earthquake of 1884, which reached intensity IX–X.

For a visitor, the chance of a damaging quake on any given trip is small. What helps:

• Know the drill. If you feel shaking, drop, take cover under a sturdy table and hold on. Do not run out under balconies and old façades.
• Check the IGN's recent earthquake list if a series is active during your stay, and follow instructions from 112.

Theft is the main everyday risk

Police recorded 3,545 thefts in Granada in 2025, down 5.7%. That is the lowest rate per resident of the Spanish cities on our site. Granada's population is only 234,000, though, and its visitors all go to the same few places, so the risk where they gather is higher than the average implies.

Keep your bag closed and your phone in a front pocket in the Alhambra ticket and entrance queues, around Plaza Nueva and the Cathedral, along the Carrera del Darro and at the Albaicín viewpoints when they fill up at sunset. The tricks 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 describes for all of Spain apply: thieves working in teams with a distraction, and men posing as plain-clothes police who ask to see your wallet. Real police ask for ID, not your cash. In a hire car, leave nothing visible.

Granada at night

Most visitors spend their evenings in the tapas bars of the centre and the Realejo. Granada is not in the EU's 2023 survey of city residents, so we use Málaga, the nearest Spanish city in it, where 80% of residents said they feel safe walking alone at night. We take off one point because reported sexual offences in Granada rose 18.8% to 114 in 2025. 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 warns of drink spiking with GHB across Spain: buy your own drinks and keep them in sight.

The Albaicín and Sacromonte are the parts of town that need some planning after dark. Their lanes are steep and narrow, and it is easy to get lost. Walk them in a group or take a taxi or the small city bus back up.

Roads, air and the mountains

Granada's roads saw 9 deaths in 2024 and 4 in 2025 within 30 days of a crash (DGT), about 2.8 per 100,000 people on average. The count covers the ring road as well as city streets, and with numbers this small one bad crash changes the rate a lot.

Air quality is worse than on the coast. The WHO database gives an annual fine-particle (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) average of about 13 µg/m³ for 2021, from monitors that did not cover the whole year, against about 8 in Málaga. PM10, the coarser dust, averaged about 31 µg/m³, also well above the coast. People with asthma should check the daily air quality before long walks.

If you head up into the Sierra Nevada, 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 notes that altitude sickness can be a risk in Spain's higher mountains, including the Granada area. Ascend gradually and come down if you get a headache or feel dizzy.

How we scored it

Violent crime (93) is Granada's strongest factor, and theft (67) is better than in any other Spanish city we cover. Walking at night (84) uses Málaga's 2023 EU survey result, less 1 point for rising sexual offences. Health (82) is held back by air pollution in the basin, and natural hazards (72) is the weakest factor because of the city's earthquake risk.