CrimeMetric

Crime in Chelsea, Massachusetts

Major crime in Chelsea is about the U.S. rate per resident: 1.7 times for persons crimes and 17% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 23.6% from a year earlier.

Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this

Major crime
99
about the U.S. rate
35% above the Massachusetts rate
down 23.6% in a year
Persons crimes
172
1.7 times the U.S. rate
1.8 times the Massachusetts rate
down 31.8% in a year
Property crimes
83
17% below the U.S. rate
21% above the Massachusetts rate
down 19.2% in a year
Social disorder
74
26% below the U.S. rate
12% above the Massachusetts rate
down 35.1% in a year

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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Crime by type

Rape / sexual assault stands out most, at 3.2 times the U.S. rate

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

Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live

IndexPer year

How crime varies across Chelsea

The middle half of Chelsea residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 58 and 117; the typical (median) resident's is 74. The citywide figure (99) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.

Map of Chelsea, with its census block groups shaded by major-crime index band
Block groups shaded by major-crime index, in the bar's bands below; pale gray where fewer than 100 people live. Tap one to compare it. Highways and boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 0–5020.0%
  • 50–10045.1%
  • 100–20031.6%
  • 200–4001.9%
  • 400+1.5%

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

When it happens

Highest on weekday daytimes

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

Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm116
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am81
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm103
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am87
Trend and outlook

Major crime fell 23.6% in a year; across Massachusetts it fell 5.7%

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-23.6%MA -5.7%-13.1%MA -11.5%
Persons crimes-31.8%MA +0.2%-4.9%MA -0.8%
Property crimes-19.2%MA -7.4%-16.9%MA -14.9%
Social disorder-35.1%MA -1.6%-6.8%MA -4.6%

Change in expected crimes, with Massachusetts as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.

Similar-size places

Chelsea against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents

315 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Chelsea; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:

Dover, DE40,446292
Woodlawn, MD40,331188
Chelsea, MA40,50099
Sanford, NC40,59225

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

Nearby places

Chelsea 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, Everett (1 mi), is 15% below Chelsea's rate.

Cambridge4 mi185
Somerville4 mi109
Chelsea99
Everett1 mi85
Revere2 mi69
Medford4 mi65
Malden3 mi64
Melrose4 mi39

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.

Questions about crime in Chelsea

What are the most common crimes in Chelsea?

By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 211 a year), aggravated assault (about 136 a year) and shoplifting (about 97 a year). Compared with the U.S., rape / sexual assault stands out most: 3.2 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. Chelsea's figures add up its 37 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • Chelsea has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
  • 82.0% 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: 40,500. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in Chelsea, Massachusetts." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ma/chelsea

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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100