CrimeMetric

Crime in Chester, Pennsylvania

Major crime in Chester is 35% above the U.S. rate per resident: 1.8 times for persons crimes and 26% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 8.0% from a year earlier.

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

Major crime
135
35% above the U.S. rate
1.6 times the Pennsylvania rate
down 8.0% in a year
Persons crimes
180
1.8 times the U.S. rate
2.6 times the Pennsylvania rate
up 6.8% in a year
Property crimes
126
26% above the U.S. rate
44% above the Pennsylvania rate
down 11.8% in a year
Social disorder
143
43% above the U.S. rate
1.6 times the Pennsylvania rate
up 4.4% in a year

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

Check an address in Chester

Crime by type

Murder stands out most, at 5.9 times the U.S. rate

Expected crimes per year in Chester 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 Chester

The middle half of Chester residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 73 and 148; the typical (median) resident's is 116.

Map of Chester, 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.
  • 0–5010.7%
  • 50–10029.2%
  • 100–20049.9%
  • 200–4008.2%
  • 400+2.1%

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 weeknights

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

Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm117
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am157
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm133
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am144
Trend and outlook

Major crime fell 8.0% in a year; across Pennsylvania it fell 8.6%

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-8.0%PA -8.6%-11.0%PA -14.0%
Persons crimes+6.8%PA -5.5%-5.2%PA -6.0%
Property crimes-11.8%PA -9.2%-12.8%PA -15.4%
Social disorder+4.4%PA -6.1%-5.5%PA -8.5%

Change in expected crimes, with Pennsylvania 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

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

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

Chamblee, GA34,252144
Chester, PA34,154135
Pasadena, MD34,23896
Niles, IL34,24187
Pullman, WA34,08441
Westlake, OH34,17735
Sterling, VA34,25534

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

Nearby places

Chester 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, Eddystone (2 mi), is 14% above Chester's rate.

Eddystone2 mi154
Folsom4 mi139
Chester135
Brookhaven2 mi131
Woodlyn2 mi89

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

Questions about crime in Chester

What are the most common crimes in Chester?

By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 215 a year), motor vehicle theft (about 125 a year) and aggravated assault (about 114 a year). Compared with the U.S., murder stands out most: 5.9 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. Chester's figures add up its 31 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • Chester has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
  • 93.1% 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: 34,154. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in Chester, Pennsylvania." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/pa/chester

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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100