Chicago vs San Francisco Crime Comparison (2026)
Side-by-side comparison of Chicago, Illinois and San Francisco, California drawn from each city's open public-safety data. Counts are shown both raw and normalized to per-100,000 residents so different city sizes can be compared fairly.
| Category | Chicago | San Francisco | Chicago /100k | San Francisco /100k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total incidents | 14,557↓ | 7,121 | 546 | 881 |
| Violent | 4,995 | 838↓ | 187 | 104 |
| Property | 5,828↓ | 2,477 | 219 | 306 |
| Drugs | 439↓ | 888 | 16 | 110 |
| Severe (sev. 2) | 4,995 | 840↓ | 187 | 104 |
| Arrests | 0 | 2,909↓ | 0 | 360 |
Snapshot verdict
Across 5 normalized per-100k categories, Chicago has the lower rate in 3 of them in our active snapshot. Remember: calls-for-service include unfounded reports and don't equal adjudicated crimes. "Safer" in this table means "fewer reported incidents per resident" — useful as one signal among many.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chicago or San Francisco safer?
Across normalized per-100k metrics in our active snapshot, Chicago has the lower count in 3 of 5 categories. These are calls-for-service ratios, not adjudicated crimes — and "safer" depends on which category matters to you.
How is the comparison normalized?
We divide each raw count by the city's population and multiply by 100,000 — the standard "incidents per 100k residents" rate used in FBI UCR reports. This lets us compare cities of very different sizes fairly.
What time window do the numbers cover?
These are the active snapshots we currently hold for each city. Window length depends on each agency's publication cadence — typically the last 30-180 days. Cross-city date ranges may not perfectly overlap.
Where does the data come from?
Each city's open public-safety feed published by its police agency. We re-publish with attribution and link to the source on every page.
Illinois
Open the Chicago crime map →
California
Open the San Francisco crime map →