District safety · Seattle · data through August 2026

How safe is University District, Seattle?

University District, Seattle covers 3 neighborhoods in SafeRoute's Seattle index. Its median safety index is 22/100 — below the citywide median of 54, so more is reported around a typical neighborhood here than across Seattle. University of Washington scores highest at 42/100; University District lowest at 21/100.

These figures describe reported crime around each neighborhood's center — they are informational, not a judgment of any community. 0 of 3 neighborhoods here rate low risk, 0 moderate, 1 elevated and 2 high risk.

Every neighborhood in University District, safest first

Neighborhood	Index	Band	Incidents
1 University of Washington	42/100	Elevated	648
2 University Heights	22/100	High risk	1,415
3 University District	21/100	High risk	1,470

How University District compares across Seattle

Districts (safest first)	Median index	Neighborhoods
Magnolia	78/100	3
Beacon Hill	73/100	4
Greater Duwamish	72/100	5
West Seattle	71/100	8
Northeast	68/100	8
Lake City	63/100	5
Northgate	62/100	4
Delridge	61/100	6
Northwest	58/100	5
North Central	56/100	4
Capitol Hill	54/100	5
Ballard	49/100	5
Central Area	49/100	6
Queen Anne	46/100	4
Rainier Valley	45/100	6
Cascade	41/100	3
University District (this page)	22/100	3
Downtown	10/100	8

Common questions

What is the safest neighborhood in University District, Seattle?

University of Washington has the highest SafeRoute safety index in University District, Seattle, at 42/100 (elevated), from 648 reported incidents within 1 km of its center. University Heights (22/100) and University District (21/100) follow.

Which neighborhood in University District, Seattle has the most reported crime?

University District has the lowest index in University District, Seattle, at 21/100, with 1,470 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 University District, Seattle safe?

Across its 3 neighborhoods the median SafeRoute safety index is 22/100, against 54 across Seattle. 0 rate low risk, 0 moderate, 1 elevated and 2 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 Seattle 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 University District, Seattle is the median of its 3 neighborhoods — the district is not measured separately.

Methodology

Each incident reported to the Seattle Police Department (via Seattle Open Data) 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 Seattle City GIS Neighborhood Map Atlas — 94 neighborhoods grouped into 20 districts (so Capitol Hill and West Seattle, which are districts, appear as section headings). Because Seattle's dense downtown far outweighs its residential neighborhoods, the index is calibrated to the citywide median so a typical neighborhood reads mid-scale. Time-of-day charts use SPD incident timestamps, severity-weighted. Pages regenerate as new data is published.

The index compares neighborhoods within Seattle. It is not comparable between cities: each police force publishes a different set of offences over a different period — Seattle's figures cannot be read against another city's on the same 0–100 scale.