Crime in Vista, California
Major crime in Vista is 33% below the U.S. rate per resident: 7% higher for persons crimes and 42% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 39.8% 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 2.8 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Vista 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 Vista
The middle half of Vista residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 39 and 78; the typical (median) resident's is 50. The citywide figure (67) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5045.3%
- 50–10040.7%
- 100–20011.3%
- 200–4002.7%
- 400+0.0%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on Friday and Saturday nights
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 39.8% 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.
Vista against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
217 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Vista; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Vista has a higher major-crime index than 5 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Oceanside (4 mi), is 1.5 times Vista's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Vista
What are the most common crimes in Vista?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are aggravated assault (about 276 a year), theft from vehicle (about 255 a year) and other larceny (about 190 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 2.8 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. Vista's figures add up its 56 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Vista's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 62.1% 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: 101,054. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Vista, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/vista
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Oceanside4 mi102
- Carlsbad6 mi68
- Lake San Marcos6 mi29
- San Marcos6 mi47
- Bonsall6 mi30
- Hidden Meadows8 mi22
- Encinitas10 mi60
- Escondido11 mi96