# Is El Paso a Safe Place to Live? > Is El Paso safe? By FBI data it is one of the safest large cities in the country. What the numbers say, where the reputation came from, and how to check a street. **Author:** Marina Ramirez **Published:** 2026-09-07 **Category:** Relocation Guide --- Yes. El Paso is consistently one of the safest large cities in the United States, and that is not local pride talking, it is Federal Bureau of Investigation crime data. El Paso has ranked at or near the top of national safest large city lists for decades, and recent reporting puts the city's overall crime rate well below the national average. I get this question more than any other from families relocating here, especially those coming on orders to [Fort Bliss](/en/military) who have never been to the border. It usually arrives with an apology attached, something like "I know how this sounds, but my family keeps asking." The question is fair. Let me give you the actual numbers and then the practical part, which is how to evaluate a specific street rather than a whole city. ## What the Data Says El Paso is one of a small handful of the fifty largest cities in the country with total crime rates well below the national average. In 2022, the El Paso Police Department reported roughly 1,692 crimes per 100,000 residents, a figure that placed the city among the ten lowest of the hundred largest cities in the country. The violent crime rate has been trending down in recent years. For context, this is a city of nearly 680,000 people, part of a binational metro area of well over two million counting Ciudad Juárez. It is not a small town with a small town's numbers. It is a genuinely large American city that posts low crime figures year after year. The pattern is old enough to be boring. El Paso showed up at number one or number two on national safest city rankings through the 2000s and 2010s using different methodologies from different organizations. When several independent measures agree over that long a stretch, the finding is real rather than a data quirk. ## Where the Reputation Problem Comes From If the numbers are this good, why does anyone ask? **Proximity to Ciudad Juárez.** El Paso sits directly across the Rio Grande from Juárez, which had serious violence during the cartel conflict years around 2008 to 2012. National coverage regularly used images from one city while discussing the other. The border between them is an international boundary with federal enforcement, and the crime statistics on the two sides have been very different for a long time. **Border coverage generally.** El Paso appears in national news almost exclusively in immigration stories. If that is your only exposure to the city, you build a mental image out of footage of a river and a fence rather than out of neighborhoods, hospitals, and schools. **The 2019 Walmart shooting.** It was a devastating day and it is part of this city's history. It was also a single act by a man who drove more than 600 miles to get here specifically because of who lives here. It does not describe daily life in El Paso, and the community response to it is a better indicator of the place than the event itself. None of this is a reason to dismiss anyone's concern. It is a reason to check data rather than impressions. ## What Safe Actually Feels Like Here Numbers are one thing. What clients tell me after they arrive is more specific and more useful. Kids ride bikes to the park. People leave garage doors open while they work in the yard. High school football fills stadiums on Friday nights across the whole city. Property crime exists, mostly car break ins in apartment lots and package theft, the same as anywhere. Violent crime is rare enough that individual incidents make the news for days. The military families I work with usually mention the same thing after six months: it is quieter than they expected, and the community is tighter than they expected. El Paso has a very large military and veteran population, so a new family arriving is not an oddity here. It is Tuesday. ## How to Evaluate a Specific Neighborhood City wide statistics do not tell you about a particular block, and any large city has variation. Here is what I actually recommend. **Drive it at three different times.** A weekday morning, a weekday evening around six, and a Saturday night. Streets change character. Fifteen minutes each is enough. **Look at the El Paso Police Department crime map.** The department publishes incident data by area. Look at trend and type, not raw counts, since higher population areas naturally post higher totals. **Ask about the specific street, not the zip code.** El Paso zip codes can be large and can cover very different housing stock. The Northeast, for example, contains both quiet established streets near the mountain and areas I would look at more carefully. So does the East side. So does almost every part of town. **Check the school ratings even if you have no children.** School quality tracks with neighborhood stability and resale demand. I break that down in the [best school districts for El Paso home buyers](/en/blog/best-school-districts-el-paso-home-buyers-2026). **Talk to two neighbors.** People will tell you the truth about their street if you knock and ask. This is the single most underused research tool in home buying. If you are choosing between areas from out of state, the neighborhood guides for [West El Paso](/en/blog/west-el-paso-neighborhoods-guide-2026), [the Northeast and East side](/en/blog/northeast-east-el-paso-best-neighborhoods-first-time-military-buyers-2026), and [Socorro and the Lower Valley](/en/blog/socorro-lower-valley-affordable-homes-2026) walk through the practical differences. ## The Other Half of the Question People asking about safety are usually asking about more than crime. They mean: will my family be all right here. A few things worth knowing. El Paso has a large medical presence including a university medical center and a children's hospital. The city is majority Hispanic and strongly bilingual, which some arriving families find unfamiliar for about a month and then find they like. Natural disaster risk is low, no hurricanes, essentially no tornado exposure, and limited flooding outside specific arroyo areas, which I cover in the [flood insurance guide](/en/blog/do-you-need-flood-insurance-el-paso). Summers are hot and dry, winters are mild, and there are more than 300 sunny days a year. The honest downsides are wind in the spring, dust with it, and a job market that is narrower than a Dallas or a Phoenix if you are not connected to the military, education, healthcare, or trade. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is El Paso one of the safest cities in America? Yes. Federal Bureau of Investigation data has placed El Paso among the safest large cities in the country for decades, and its total crime rate sits well below the national average for cities of its size. ### Is El Paso dangerous because of the border? No. El Paso and Ciudad Juárez are separate cities in separate countries with separate law enforcement and very different crime statistics. El Paso's low crime rate has held steady through periods of high violence across the river. ### What is the crime rate in El Paso? The El Paso Police Department reported roughly 1,692 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2022, among the lowest of the hundred largest United States cities, with violent crime trending downward in recent years. Check the department's public crime map for current neighborhood level figures. ### What are the safest neighborhoods in El Paso? West El Paso, the Upper Valley, and the Eastlake and Horizon area are commonly cited, but every part of the city has quiet established streets. Evaluate by street rather than by region, and drive it at different times of day. ### Is El Paso safe for military families? Yes, and it is one of the most military friendly cities in the country given Fort Bliss. The Fort Bliss housing guide covers neighborhoods by commute and gate access in the [PCS to Fort Bliss guide](/en/blog/pcs-fort-bliss-housing-guide-2026). ## The Bottom Line El Paso's safety reputation problem is a media problem, not a crime problem. The data has been consistent for a very long time and it says this is one of the safest big cities in the country to live in. That said, no city is uniform, and the useful work is at the street level. If you are relocating and want an honest read on specific neighborhoods in your price range, including the ones I would tell you to skip, [send me a note](/en#contact). I will give you the version I would give a friend. --- ## Contact Marina Ramirez, REALTOR® — Clear View Realty (El Paso, TX) - Phone: (915) 240-8340 - Email: info@marina-ramirez.com - Website: https://marina-ramirez.com/en Human-readable version of this page: https://marina-ramirez.com/en/blog/is-el-paso-safe-place-to-live