Crime in San Mateo, California
Major crime in San Mateo is 22% below the U.S. rate per resident: 45% lower for persons crimes and 18% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 20.2% 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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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 40% above the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in San Mateo 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 San Mateo
The middle half of San Mateo residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 35 and 73; the typical (median) resident's is 53. The citywide figure (78) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5048.2%
- 50–10037.5%
- 100–2008.5%
- 200–4001.9%
- 400+3.9%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
About the same at every time of week
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 20.2% 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.
San Mateo against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
200 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than San Mateo; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
San Mateo has a higher major-crime index than 6 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Foster City (3 mi), is 38% below San Mateo's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in San Mateo
What are the most common crimes in San Mateo?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 431 a year), other larceny (about 396 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 241 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 40% above 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. San Mateo's figures add up its 73 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- San Mateo's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 26.6% 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: 104,359. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in San Mateo, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/san-mateo
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Foster City3 mi48
- Hillsborough3 mi33
- Belmont3 mi64
- Burlingame4 mi88
- San Carlos5 mi72
- Millbrae6 mi69
- Redwood City7 mi101
- San Bruno8 mi77