District safety · Seattle · data through August 2026

How safe is West Seattle?

West Seattle covers 8 neighborhoods in SafeRoute's Seattle index. Its median safety index is 71/100 — above the citywide median of 54, so a typical neighborhood here reads safer than a typical one across Seattle. Arbor Heights scores highest at 85/100; Fairmount Park lowest at 42/100.

These figures describe reported crime around each neighborhood's center — they are informational, not a judgment of any community. 2 of 8 neighborhoods here rate low risk, 4 moderate, 2 elevated and 0 high risk.

Every neighborhood in West Seattle, safest first

Neighborhood	Index	Band	Incidents
1 Arbor Heights	85/100	Low risk	68
2 Fauntleroy	80/100	Low risk	105
3 Gatewood	72/100	Moderate	169
4 Alki	71/100	Moderate	146
5 Seaview	70/100	Moderate	175
6 North Admiral	65/100	Moderate	229
7 Genesee	43/100	Elevated	529
8 Fairmount Park	42/100	Elevated	532

How West Seattle 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 (this page)	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	22/100	3
Downtown	10/100	8

Common questions

What is the safest neighborhood in West Seattle?

Arbor Heights has the highest SafeRoute safety index in West Seattle, at 85/100 (low risk), from 68 reported incidents within 1 km of its center. Fauntleroy (80/100) and Gatewood (72/100) follow.

Which neighborhood in West Seattle has the most reported crime?

Fairmount Park has the lowest index in West Seattle, at 42/100, with 532 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 West Seattle safe?

Across its 8 neighborhoods the median SafeRoute safety index is 71/100, against 54 across Seattle. 2 rate low risk, 4 moderate, 2 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 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 West Seattle is the median of its 8 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.