New York City

Is New York City safe?

Safer than it has been in living memory. 2025 was the city's best year on record for gun violence and road deaths, and murders fell by a fifth. Most visitors spend their time in Manhattan and the nearer parts of Brooklyn and Queens, where serious crime against tourists is uncommon.

The catch is that "record low" for New York is still high by the standards of London or Tokyo. Assaults have not fallen, and the subway is where many visitors feel least at ease. We score the city 80.

What the 2025 numbers show

Crime	2024	2025	Change
Murders	382	305	-20%
Shooting incidents	904	688	-24%
Robberies	16,696	15,065	-10%
Felony assaults	29,684	29,792	0%
Rapes	1,767	2,049	+16%
Grand larceny	48,963	48,034	-2%

Source: NYPD year-end figures. With about 8.5 million people, 305 murders works out to roughly 3.6 per 100,000, near the bottom of the 1 to 4 band in our rubric. The Major Cities Chiefs Association survey, which collects preliminary data under national reporting rules, lists a lower 263 homicides for New York in 2025 (361 in 2024). We use the NYPD's own count; either figure gives the same score. Shootings are concentrated in a small number of neighbourhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn, far from where visitors stay. Felony assaults are the figure to watch. Many involve strangers, including unprovoked attacks in the street or on the subway that make the news.

The subway

The NYPD counted 2,160 transit crimes in 2025, which it calls the safest subway year since 2009 outside the pandemic. For 3 to 4 million daily riders, that is a low rate. The problem is less crime than disorder: people in mental health crisis, fare evasion and the odd frightening incident on a platform.

Practical rules that New Yorkers follow:

• Stand back from the platform edge, against the wall or a pillar, until the train arrives.
• Late at night, wait in the off-hours waiting area near the booth and ride in a car with other people. The conductor rides in the middle of the train.
• If someone in your car is aggressive, get off at the next stop and change cars. Nobody will think it odd.
• Keep your phone in hand away from the doors; phone snatching as the doors close happens.

Scams and theft

Pickpocketing is lower-level than in European capitals, but grand larceny (theft of property worth more than $1,000) ran at about 48,000 cases in 2025. Bags on the back of restaurant chairs and phones on bar counters are the usual targets.

Scams cluster where tourists do:

• Times Square: costumed characters who demand money after a photo, and men pushing "free" CDs then asking for a tip.
• Battery Park: sellers of "Statue of Liberty tickets" or tours that do not land on Liberty Island. Statue City Cruises is the only official ferry operator.
• Airports and Penn Station: unlicensed drivers offering rides. Use the yellow taxi line or a ride-app pickup point.
• Fifth Avenue and Midtown: people in robes handing out "blessing" beads or cards and asking for donations.

Streets, storms and hospitals

NYC DOT recorded 205 traffic deaths in 2025, the fewest ever, and 111 of them were pedestrians. The danger at crossings comes from cars turning across the walk signal and from e-bikes, which often ride against traffic in bike lanes. Look both ways even on one-way avenues.

Air is clean for a city this size; fine particle levels fell 29% between 2009 and 2023, according to the city's air survey. The exception is wildfire smoke from Canada, which gave New York some of the worst air in the world for a few days in June 2023. Storms are the bigger hazard. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 flooded lower Manhattan, and the remnants of Hurricane Ida in 2021 killed people trapped in flooded basement apartments. If a flash flood warning sounds on your phone, stay out of subway stations and basements.

Hospitals are excellent, but a visit to an emergency room can cost thousands of dollars. Buy travel insurance with medical cover before you go.

Where to stay

Midtown, the Upper West and Upper East Sides, Greenwich Village, Chelsea and SoHo are safe at all hours. In Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Park Slope and Williamsburg are popular and calm. Hotels around Penn Station and Port Authority Bus Terminal are convenient but less pleasant late at night. Read our United States page for travel beyond the city, and compare with Mexico City if you are travelling on through the Americas.

How we scored it

Traffic (86) and health (88) are strong, helped by Vision Zero and clean air. Violent crime (79) is the weakest major factor: murders are at a record low, but assaults are high for a rich-world city. Night safety (76) reflects the late-night subway rather than the streets of Manhattan.