Crime & Safety in Wilmington
Wilmington's crime data is genuinely harder to summarize in one number than most markets in this build wave, because the two most commonly cited sources measure different things: CrimeGrade.org's headline figures describe a COMBINED violent-and-property crime rate (40 per 1,000 residents; about 1-in-25 combined victimization odds) and grade violent crime D+, while NeighborhoodScout's violent-crime-SPECIFIC odds (about 1-in-207) look far less severe in isolation. Both sources agree on something clearly favorable, though: violent crime fell roughly 45% between 2020 and 2024, and the large majority of individual Wilmington neighborhoods grade safe to very safe.
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Learn moreCrimeGrade's Combined Rate vs. NeighborhoodScout's Violent-Only Rate: Not a Direct Comparison
CrimeGrade.org describes Wilmington's overall crime rate as "among the highest in America compared to all communities" by its methodology, citing 40 crimes per 1,000 residents and a combined chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime of about 1 in 25; it separately grades violent crime specifically at D+ (a rate of 4.234 per 1,000 residents in a typical year, above the norm for US cities). NeighborhoodScout, drawing on FBI reported crime data, instead cites a violent-crime-specific victimization chance of about 1 in 207 -- a figure that on its face looks far less alarming than CrimeGrade's combined statistic. These aren't contradictory readings of the same number; CrimeGrade's widely cited "1 in 25" figure blends property crime (generally far more common than violent crime) into the same statistic, while NeighborhoodScout's "1 in 207" isolates violent crime alone. Treat any single cited "chance of being a victim" figure with real care about which category it actually measures.
A Real, Documented Improvement: Violent Crime Down ~45% Since 2020
Both the CrimeGrade-style trend analysis and the broader sources reviewed this session agree on a genuine, favorable trend: the number of violent crimes in Wilmington fell approximately 45% from 2020 to 2024. This is a substantial, multi-year decline, not a single favorable year's snapshot, and should be weighed alongside the higher-alarm combined-rate figures above rather than ignored in favor of either extreme reading.
Dramatic Neighborhood-to-Neighborhood Variance
CrimeGrade's 2026 neighborhood-level crime map, covering 83 analyzed Wilmington neighborhoods, found 77.1% (64 neighborhoods) earning an A grade, with a combined 90% of neighborhoods falling into the safe-to-very-safe range overall -- only about 4% of neighborhoods are classified as higher-crime areas. Consistent with this, a separate read describes the southeast part of the city as generally the safest, with victimization odds ranging from about 1-in-69 in the west neighborhoods to about 1-in-485 in the southeast -- a roughly seven-fold difference within the same city. A citywide statistic, whichever source it comes from, meaningfully understates how safe most individual Wilmington neighborhoods actually are.
Reading the Disagreement Honestly
The honest summary here is not that one source is right and the other wrong, but that Wilmington's citywide crime statistics are genuinely harder to reduce to a single number than most peer markets, given how differently CrimeGrade's combined rate and NeighborhoodScout's violent-only rate are constructed. A real, sourced improvement trend (violent crime down ~45% since 2020) and dramatic neighborhood-level variance (90%-plus of neighborhoods safe-to-very-safe by one 2026 analysis) both matter to an honest picture -- neither should be dropped to make the other look more or less alarming.
Key takeaways
- CrimeGrade's widely cited "1 in 25" combined victimization figure and NeighborhoodScout's "1 in 207" violent-crime-specific figure measure different things -- combined violent-and-property crime versus violent crime alone -- and shouldn't be read as contradictory readings of the same statistic.
- Violent crime in Wilmington fell approximately 45% from 2020 to 2024, a real, multi-year, favorable trend both source types are broadly consistent with.
- Neighborhood-level variance is dramatic: a 2026 CrimeGrade analysis found 90%-plus of 83 analyzed Wilmington neighborhoods in the safe-to-very-safe range, with victimization odds ranging roughly seven-fold between the west (about 1-in-69) and southeast (about 1-in-485) parts of the city.
- A citywide crime statistic, from either source, meaningfully understates how safe most individual Wilmington neighborhoods actually are -- check neighborhood-specific data for any address under serious consideration.
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