Crime & Safety in Augusta
Augusta's crime picture genuinely depends on which source's methodology is doing the comparing: CrimeGrade.org grades Augusta C- for both violent and property crime (38th and 31st percentile for safety respectively -- worse than average, not an extreme outlier), while NeighborhoodScout describes Augusta's overall crime rate as one of the highest in America compared to ALL U.S. communities of every size, a genuinely different and harsher-sounding comparison set. Real, sourced neighborhood-level variance within Augusta is substantial.
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Learn moreTwo Sources, Two Different Comparison Sets
CrimeGrade.org cites Augusta's violent crime rate at 3.485 per 1,000 residents (C- grade, 38th percentile for safety among the cities it grades) and property crime at 16.81 per 1,000 residents (C- grade, 31st percentile), with an overall combined grade landing in the 39th percentile. NeighborhoodScout, by contrast, cites an overall crime rate of 36 per 1,000 residents and describes Augusta as having one of the highest crime rates in America -- but NeighborhoodScout's stated comparison set is all communities of all sizes nationwide, including small towns with very low baseline crime counts, which produces a harsher-sounding relative ranking than a peer-city-only comparison would. Both figures are real and sourced; the honest takeaway is that Augusta runs worse than average by both methodologies, but how much worse depends heavily on which comparison set is used.
Victimization Odds
NeighborhoodScout cites a combined violent-or-property crime victimization chance of about 1 in 28 for an Augusta resident in a given year. This is a real, disclosed figure worth taking seriously, though -- as above -- it should be read alongside the CrimeGrade percentile figures rather than in isolation, since the two sources use different baselines.
Substantial Neighborhood-to-Neighborhood Variance
A citywide figure blends genuinely different areas: one 2026 neighborhood-level breakdown cites Belair earning an A- safety grade and West Augusta a B+, while East Augusta and Old City both land at C+ -- meaning half of the specific neighborhoods analyzed carry an A or B grade and half carry a C+. This is a real, meaningful spread, and anyone narrowing in on a specific address or neighborhood should check block-level or neighborhood-specific data directly rather than relying on a single Augusta-wide average, which may not describe a specific neighborhood at all.
What Wasn't Confirmed This Session
A specific, independently sourced year-over-year crime trend for Augusta (rising, falling, or flat) was not confirmed from a primary Richmond County Sheriff's Office or FBI UCR source this session, unlike Houston's page on this site, which could cite a specific, sourced 2025 improvement. Treat the figures above as a snapshot rather than a trend, and confirm current-year statistics directly with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office for the most current picture.
Key takeaways
- CrimeGrade.org grades Augusta C- for both violent crime (38th percentile for safety) and property crime (31st percentile) -- worse than average among the cities it grades, but not framed as an extreme outlier.
- NeighborhoodScout separately describes Augusta's overall crime rate (36 per 1,000 residents, ~1-in-28 victimization odds) as one of the highest in America -- a framing that reflects comparison against all U.S. communities of every size, not just peer cities, a real methodology difference worth understanding before treating the two sources as contradictory.
- Neighborhood-level variance is real and substantial: Belair (A-) and West Augusta (B+) contrast with East Augusta and Old City (both C+) in one 2026 breakdown -- check neighborhood-specific data for any target address.
- A specific, sourced year-over-year crime trend for Augusta wasn't confirmed from a primary source this session -- treat the figures here as a snapshot and confirm current statistics directly with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.
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