CrimeMetric

Crime in San Jose, California

Major crime in San Jose is 1.6 times the U.S. rate per resident: 39% higher for persons crimes and 1.7 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 5.6% from a year earlier.

How we did this

We start from police agencies' crime reports to the FBI (estimated where an agency doesn't report), model how they spread across the census block groups each agency serves, then add up San Jose's 602 block groups. Numbers are estimates with a range of uncertainty, not counts of individual incidents.

Rates are per resident, so areas where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can look high. More on the method

Major crime
161
1.6 times the U.S. rate
34% above the California rate
down 5.6% in a year
Persons crimes
139
39% above the U.S. rate
about the California rate
down 14.2% in a year
Property crimes
165
1.7 times the U.S. rate
41% above the California rate
down 3.8% in a year
Social disorder
100
about the U.S. rate
about the California rate
down 7.4% in a year

Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.

Crime by type

Motor vehicle theft is highest, at 2.9 times the U.S. rate

Expected crimes per year in San Jose for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.

Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live

IndexPer year

Persons crimes

Robbery187808
Murder6624

Property crimes

Burglary1592,625
Shoplifting1003,206

How crime varies across San Jose

Half of San Jose residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 74 and 170, and half live where it is below 113. The citywide figure (161) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.

Map of San Jose, with its census block groups shaded by major-crime index band
Census block groups shaded by their band of major-crime index per resident, the same bands as the bar below. Pale gray areas have fewer than 100 residents, so no index is published. Gray lines are major highways. Boundaries and roads: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 0–507.5%
  • 50–10036.7%
  • 100–20037.4%
  • 200–40013.1%
  • 400+5.4%

Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.

When it happens

Highest at night

Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.

Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm136
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am190
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm143
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am186

Trend and outlook

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-5.6%-14.2%
Persons crimes-14.2%-6.3%
Property crimes-3.8%-15.6%
Social disorder-7.4%-9.7%

Change in expected crimes. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.

Similar-size places

San Jose against U.S. places with 1 million or more residents

6 of the 12 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than San Jose; the middle of the group is 161. The 9 nearest in population:

Philadelphia, PA1,576,165281
Houston, TX2,433,038278
San Antonio, TX1,557,099241
Dallas, TX1,348,671208
Austin, TX1,025,425185
San Jose, CA1,006,230161
Jacksonville, FL1,031,982154
Phoenix, AZ1,687,715153
Fort Worth, TX1,043,554132
San Diego, CA1,417,463116

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.

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. San Jose's figures add up its 602 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • San Jose's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
  • 68.9% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
  • Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
  • Residents: 1,006,230. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in San Jose, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/san-jose

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Nearest cities we publish

Major-crime index, U.S. = 100