District safety · Philadelphia · data through September 2026
How safe is Upper Northwest, Philadelphia?
Upper Northwest, Philadelphia covers 10 neighborhoods in SafeRoute's Philadelphia index. Its median safety index is 54/100 — close to the citywide median of 54. Chestnut Hill scores highest at 93/100; Germantown - Penn Knox lowest at 47/100.
These figures describe reported crime around each neighborhood's center — they are informational, not a judgment of any community. 2 of 10 neighborhoods here rate low risk, 7 moderate, 1 elevated and 0 high risk.
Every neighborhood in Upper Northwest, safest first
| Neighborhood | Index | Band | Incidents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Chestnut Hill | 93/100 | Low risk | 118 |
| 2 West Mount Airy | 86/100 | Low risk | 266 |
| 3 East Mount Airy | 70/100 | Moderate | 687 |
| 4 West Central Germantown | 57/100 | Moderate | 1,176 |
| 5 Germantown - Westside | 54/100 | Moderate | 1,304 |
| 6 Southwest Germantown | 54/100 | Moderate | 1,223 |
| 7 East Germantown | 53/100 | Moderate | 1,264 |
| 8 Germantown - Morton | 52/100 | Moderate | 1,313 |
| 9 Wister | 51/100 | Moderate | 1,438 |
| 10 Germantown - Penn Knox | 47/100 | Elevated | 1,670 |
Walking in Upper Northwest, Philadelphia at night?
SafeRoute scores every walking route against the same live crime data on this page — and shows how much of each route runs on lit streets. Compare the routes, share your walk, and check in when you arrive. Free, no account.
Get SafeRoute on the App StoreHow Upper Northwest compares across Philadelphia
| Districts (safest first) | Median index | Neighborhoods |
|---|---|---|
| Upper Far Northeast | 89/100 | 3 |
| Lower South | 87/100 | 3 |
| Lower Northwest | 85/100 | 10 |
| Lower Far Northeast | 84/100 | 14 |
| Central Northeast | 73/100 | 5 |
| West Park | 69/100 | 4 |
| North Delaware | 67/100 | 5 |
| Lower Southwest | 66/100 | 5 |
| River Wards | 63/100 | 6 |
| Lower Northeast | 62/100 | 5 |
| Upper North | 57/100 | 8 |
| Upper Northwest (this page) | 54/100 | 10 |
| University Southwest | 52/100 | 11 |
| South | 49/100 | 13 |
| Central | 44/100 | 19 |
| North | 44/100 | 11 |
| West | 42/100 | 9 |
| Lower North | 40/100 | 10 |
Common questions
What is the safest neighborhood in Upper Northwest, Philadelphia?
Chestnut Hill has the highest SafeRoute safety index in Upper Northwest, Philadelphia, at 93/100 (low risk), from 118 reported incidents within 1 km of its center. West Mount Airy (86/100) and East Mount Airy (70/100) follow.
Which neighborhood in Upper Northwest, Philadelphia has the most reported crime?
Germantown - Penn Knox has the lowest index in Upper Northwest, Philadelphia, at 47/100, with 1,670 reported incidents within 1 km of its center. A low score means more is reported around that center, which busy commercial and transport areas produce simply by having more people in them — it is not a measure of how dangerous a resident's street is.
Is Upper Northwest, Philadelphia safe?
Across its 10 neighborhoods the median SafeRoute safety index is 54/100, against 54 across Philadelphia. 2 rate low risk, 7 moderate, 1 elevated and 0 high risk. These describe reported crime only and vary widely within the district — check the individual neighborhood rather than reading one number for the whole of it.
How is the SafeRoute safety index calculated?
SafeRoute weights each incident reported to the Philadelphia Police Department by severity (violence weighs more than shoplifting), sums the last available period within 1 km of the neighborhood center, and normalizes against citywide crime rates onto a 0–100 scale — higher is safer. It describes reported crime only; it is not a guarantee of safety. The figure shown for Upper Northwest, Philadelphia is the median of its 10 neighborhoods — the district is not measured separately.
Methodology
Each incident reported to the Philadelphia Police Department (via OpenDataPhilly) is weighted by severity — violence counts for more than shoplifting. For every neighborhood we sum weighted incidents within 1 km of its center, and normalize against citywide crime rates onto a 0–100 index, higher = safer. Boundaries are the 158 neighborhoods the city publishes, grouped by the 18 Planning Districts the City Planning Commission uses; seven are not scored because nobody lives in them — both halves of Fairmount Park, Wissahickon and Pennypack Parks, the two airports, and the Southwest refinery belt labelled "Industrial" — where near-zero reported crime would read as falsely "safe" rather than as empty land. Time-of-day charts use PPD dispatch timestamps, severity-weighted. Locations are published at block level for privacy. Pages regenerate as new data is published.
The index compares neighborhoods within Philadelphia. It is not comparable between cities: each police force publishes a different set of offences over a different period — Philadelphia's figures cannot be read against another city's on the same 0–100 scale.