Crime in Bakersfield, California
Major crime in Bakersfield is 1.7 times the U.S. rate per resident: 1.7 times for persons crimes and 1.6 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 5.1% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Motor vehicle theft stands out most, at 2.9 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Bakersfield for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Bakersfield
The middle half of Bakersfield residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 58 and 179; the typical (median) resident's is 91. The citywide figure (165) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5015.5%
- 50–10038.5%
- 100–20024.4%
- 200–40014.2%
- 400+7.4%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest at night
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 5.1% in a year; across California it fell 7.4%
Change in expected crimes, with California as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Bakersfield against U.S. places with 250,000 to 500,000 residents
21 of the 53 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Bakersfield; the middle of the group is 142. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Bakersfield has a higher major-crime index than 4 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Old Stine (0 mi), is 27% above Bakersfield's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Bakersfield
What are the most common crimes in Bakersfield?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 2,689 a year), theft from vehicle (about 2,007 a year) and other larceny (about 1,952 a year). Compared with the U.S., motor vehicle theft stands out most: 2.9 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Bakersfield's figures add up its 262 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Bakersfield's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 74.7% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 419,241. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Bakersfield, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/bakersfield
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Old Stine0 mi209
- Benton Park1 mi195
- Cottonwood4 mi134
- Rexland Acres4 mi155
- Greenacres5 mi180
- East Bakersfield5 mi146
- Potomac Park5 mi128
- La Cresta5 mi196