Baltimore's Crime Score Explained: City vs. County (2026)
By Sharon Ben-Moshe · August 10, 2026
Every scored Baltimore ZIP code — city and county suburbs alike — shares the same 25/100 FBI crime score. See why, how it compares to Maryland and the U.S., and what actually separates one Baltimore ZIP from another.
Every scored ZIP code in Baltimore — both inside Baltimore City and across Baltimore County's suburbs — carries the same FBI-derived crime score: 25 out of 100, NeighborScore's "Below Average" band. Maryland's statewide average crime score is 59; the national average is 63. The reason isn't geography, it's data resolution — Baltimore has no ZIP-level incident feed and no municipal-agency mapping, so every ZIP falls back to one county-wide FBI Uniform Crime Reporting figure.
Why Baltimore City and County Share One Crime Score
NeighborScore scores crime in a four-tier cascade, using the highest-resolution FBI data available for a given ZIP. The top tier is ZIP-level incident data, which currently exists for only four cities: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The next tier is municipal-agency data, mapped ZIP by ZIP to a local police department's FBI report. Baltimore has neither: it falls to the county tier, where one Uniform Crime Reporting rate is computed for the whole county (or independent city) and applied identically to every ZIP inside it.
That means a ZIP in downtown Baltimore and a ZIP in a Baltimore County suburb 15 miles out both show the same 25-out-of-100 score, even though they sit in two different counties (Baltimore City is an independent city, legally separate from Baltimore County). Both currently resolve to the same county-tier band.
What Actually Separates One Baltimore ZIP From Another
Because crime is a fixed input across the metro, the entire spread in overall NeighborScore composite (weighted 53% crime, 47% school; affordability is shown separately) comes from the school and value components. Several Baltimore-area ZIP codes reach a 100/100 school score and land at the metro's ceiling overall score of 60:
- Baltimore City 21229: crime 25, school 100, overall 60, value score 92 (highly affordable vs. the Maryland median)
- Baltimore City 21217: crime 25, school 100, overall 60, value score 95
- Dundalk 21222 (Baltimore County): crime 25, school 100, overall 60, value score 79
- Catonsville 21228 (Baltimore County): crime 25, school 100, overall 60, value score 52
Not every ZIP reaches that ceiling. Cockeysville (21030) scores a 70 on schools and lands at overall 46, while Baldwin (21013) scores just 40 on schools and drops to overall 32 — the widest gap in the sample, despite an identical crime input.
How to Read a Baltimore ZIP Profile
For homebuyers comparing Baltimore ZIP codes against each other, the crime number won't help — it's the same everywhere in this dataset. The school score and value score are where real differences show up, and both vary by more than 60 points across the ZIPs above. For comparing Baltimore against other metros, the 25/100 crime score is still meaningful: it sits 34 points below Maryland's 59 state average and 38 points below the national average of 63, using the FBI's county-level Uniform Crime Reporting figures.
Bottom Line
Baltimore's 25/100 crime score is uniform across the city and its Baltimore County suburbs because both currently resolve to the same county-tier FBI data, not because every neighborhood is equally safe. School score is the real differentiator, ranging from 40 to 100 across the ZIPs above, with affordability (value score) as a second axis. See the full methodology in how NeighborScore works, or browse more city guides on NeighborScore.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do all Baltimore ZIP codes have the same crime score?
Baltimore has no ZIP-level incident data or municipal-agency mapping in NeighborScore’s dataset, so every ZIP falls back to one county-wide FBI Uniform Crime Reporting figure. That produces a uniform 25/100 crime score across Baltimore City and Baltimore County suburbs alike.
How does Baltimore’s crime score compare to state and national averages?
Baltimore’s crime score is 25/100, versus Maryland’s statewide average of 59 and the national average of 63 — 34 points below the state average and 38 below the national average.
If crime is the same everywhere, what separates one Baltimore ZIP from another?
School score and value score (affordability). Several ZIPs, like Baltimore City’s 21229 and 21217, reach a 100/100 school score for an overall NeighborScore of 60, while Baldwin (21013) scores just 40 on schools for an overall of 32.
Which Baltimore ZIP codes have the highest overall NeighborScore?
Baltimore City’s 21229 and 21217, plus Dundalk (21222) and Catonsville (21228) in Baltimore County, tie at the metro’s ceiling overall score of 60, each pairing the shared 25 crime score with a 100 school score.