Hayward, CA Crime Map

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions About Crime in Hayward, CA

Is Hayward, CA safe to live in?

By the numbers, Hayward holds up well. Of the 19 neighborhoods analyzed, 84% earn a combined A or B safety grade — 26.3% land in the A range and 57.9% in the B range. Not a single neighborhood grades out at D or F. The city-wide safety rating is B (Safe), meaning the majority of residents live in areas with meaningfully below-average crime risk. That said, the overall city crime grade is C-, which reflects the drag from a handful of higher-activity corridors. In practical terms: if you choose your neighborhood carefully — and data shows most people in Hayward already live in one rated B or better — your day-to-day safety experience is likely to be positive.

What is the crime rate in Hayward?

Hayward's overall crime grade is C-, placing it in a moderate risk tier for a Bay Area city of its size (population 158,817). Breaking the city down by neighborhood tells a more nuanced story. Five neighborhoods (26.3%) rate A-, including Fairway Park, Glen Eden, Hayward Highland, Fairview, and Tennyson-Alquire. Eleven neighborhoods (57.9%) rate B, ranging from B+ areas like Cherryland and Longwood-Winton Grove down to B- Mission Foothills. Only three neighborhoods — Upper B Street, Downtown Hayward, and Hayward North — grade at C+, the lowest tier in the city. No neighborhood falls below C, which is a meaningful data point for a city of this density (1,338 residents per square mile).

What are the safest neighborhoods in Hayward?

Five neighborhoods share the top A- safety grade in Hayward:

• Hayward Highland — smallest of the five at ~4,375 residents, but the highest median income at $148,971; consistently the city's top-performing neighborhood by safety metrics.
• Fairway Park — population ~10,451, median income $119,093; strong safety grades across both property and violent crime categories.
• Fairview — population ~12,590, median income $113,801; one of the larger A-rated communities in the city.
• Glen Eden — the most populous A-rated neighborhood at ~14,462 residents, with a median income of $91,647 closely tracking the city median.
• Tennyson-Alquire — population ~13,564, median income $87,217; notable because it achieves an A- grade at a more moderate income level than its peers.

Just below the A tier, Cherryland, Longwood-Winton Grove, Santa Clara, Mt. Eden, and South Gate all earn B+ grades — strong safety scores despite median incomes ranging from roughly $59,000 to $86,000, suggesting safety in Hayward is not exclusively tied to affluence.

Which parts of Hayward have higher crime?

Three neighborhoods grade at C+ — the lowest safety tier found anywhere in Hayward: Upper B Street, Downtown Hayward, and Hayward North. A C+ is not an alarming grade in absolute terms, but it does indicate meaningfully elevated incident rates compared to the city's B-rated majority. Downtown Hayward in particular combines high foot traffic with commercial density, a common driver of property crime in urban cores. Mission Foothills (B-) and Mission-Garin (B) sit in the middle of the pack — neither among the safest nor the highest-crime areas. For residents or renters evaluating these zones, the crime map's temporal and incident-type filters are especially useful for understanding whether risk is concentrated at specific times or in specific categories.

Is Hayward a good place to live compared to other Bay Area cities?

Context matters here. Hayward's median household income is $91,490 and the poverty rate is 8.5% — both figures that reflect a working and middle-class city with real economic diversity. The unemployment rate of 5.2% is modest, and a median home value of $619,837 (with median rent at $1,914) makes it more accessible than many neighboring Bay Area cities. From a safety standpoint, the fact that 84% of analyzed neighborhoods rate A or B — with zero neighborhoods grading D or F — compares favorably to similarly sized California cities. The C- overall crime grade reflects city-wide aggregated data that includes the higher-activity downtown corridor, but neighborhood-level grades tell a more granular and generally encouraging story. For families and professionals willing to research specific neighborhoods like Fairway Park, Glen Eden, or the B+ cluster including Cherryland and Mt. Eden, Hayward offers a compelling combination of relative affordability and livability within the Bay Area.

How do income levels relate to neighborhood safety in Hayward?

There is a visible — but imperfect — correlation between income and safety grade in Hayward's neighborhood data. The five A- neighborhoods have median incomes ranging from $87,217 (Tennyson-Alquire) to $148,971 (Hayward Highland), all at or above the city median of $91,490. However, several B+ neighborhoods achieve strong safety grades at notably lower income levels: Longwood-Winton Grove has a median income of just $59,357 and Cherryland $62,305 — both well below the city median — yet both rate B+. This suggests that factors beyond income, such as community density, land use patterns, and neighborhood cohesion, play a meaningful role in Hayward's safety outcomes. The three C+ neighborhoods (Upper B Street, Downtown Hayward, Hayward North) reflect the dynamics of higher-density commercial and transit corridors rather than simply lower-income residential zones.