Healthcare & Safety in Richardson
Richardson's clearest healthcare fact is a strong, verified one: Methodist Richardson Medical Center has earned consecutive A Leapfrog Safety Grades. Crime data, by contrast, sends a genuinely and sharply mixed signal -- more sharply than in Garland -- disclosed here rather than resolved by picking one source.
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Learn moreMethodist Richardson Medical Center: a verified, current top safety grade
Methodist Richardson Medical Center earned an A Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group in both Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 -- Leapfrog's highest rating, based on up to 31 evidence-based national patient-safety measures (Methodist Health System/Leapfrog Group, retrieved 2026-08-22). This is a stronger, more current safety-grade signal than Garland's Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Garland, which carries only an average 3-star Medicare rating with no independently confirmed Leapfrog grade this session -- a real, disclosed difference between the two cities' primary hospitals.
Crime: a sharp, direction-level disagreement between two named sources
CrimeGrade.org gives Richardson an overall F grade -- a crime rate of 54.05 per 1,000 residents, placing the city in just the 7th percentile for safety (safer than only 7% of graded cities) -- and a D+ grade for violent crime specifically (4.456 per 1,000, 24th percentile). NeighborhoodScout, using a different methodology, describes Richardson's overall crime rate (21 per 1,000, a 1-in-48 chance of victimization) as "considerably higher than the national average" yet assigns an overall grade of B-, and a secondary aggregation of that same NeighborhoodScout data claims that once neighborhood-level data is aggregated, the city-wide rating climbs to "Very Safe (A)" (CrimeGrade.org; NeighborhoodScout via nextdoor.com aggregation, retrieved 2026-08-22). These sources disagree not just on magnitude but on direction -- CrimeGrade's F versus a claimed neighborhood-aggregated A -- a genuinely unresolved conflict, sharper than the disagreement found for Garland, that is disclosed directly rather than resolved by choosing the more favorable reading.
UT Dallas campus safety is a separate consideration
Campus-specific safety data for UT Dallas was not independently researched this session and is distinct from citywide crime statistics. Prospective renters or buyers near campus should check UT Dallas's own campus safety reporting directly rather than assuming citywide figures apply.
A practical read given the disagreement
Given how sharply CrimeGrade.org and NeighborhoodScout disagree on Richardson specifically -- more sharply than the comparable disagreement found for Garland -- treat any single crime grade for Richardson as provisional. Verify current data directly against both primary sources for a specific address or neighborhood before making a relocation decision.
Key takeaways
- Methodist Richardson Medical Center holds consecutive A Leapfrog Safety Grades (Fall 2024 and Spring 2025) -- a stronger, more current safety signal than Garland's hospital, which carries only an average 3-star Medicare rating with no confirmed Leapfrog grade.
- CrimeGrade.org grades Richardson F overall (7th percentile) while NeighborhoodScout grades it B- overall, with a secondary aggregation claiming a neighborhood-aggregated A -- a sharp, direction-level disagreement, more pronounced than in Garland, disclosed rather than resolved.
- UT Dallas campus safety is a separate consideration from citywide crime data and was not independently researched this session -- check the university's own reporting directly.
- Given the sharp disagreement between crime-data sources, treat any single grade for Richardson as provisional and verify directly for a specific address before deciding.
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