Photo: Miroslaw Mucha · Public domainNiles has less violence than most U.S. towns, but more property crime
Each year brought 0.5 violent crime and 19.8 incidents of property crime for every 1,000 residents (3.1 and 18.8 in the rest of Illinois). Next door, 3 of 5 towns with figures record less crime per resident. Overall, Niles grades C+ for safety (#222 of 339 graded towns in Illinois): close to the middle of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported in 2023–2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of IL” is every other Illinois city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Niles
3 of the 5 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 6 Illinois towns on Niles’ borders, 5 have a Safety Grade: Park Ridge (B+), Morton Grove (B+), Glenview (B−), Skokie (C−), Chicago (D). Niles Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
A job center
Niles has 21,370 jobs based in town for 30,443 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Niles’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Niles’ grade up; property crime pulls it down.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Niles | Rest of Illinois | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.0 | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.5 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Niles’ police reported 41 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Niles per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And fewer than 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Niles property | Rest of Illinois property | Niles violent | Rest of Illinois violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 24.1 | 20.5 | 1.0 | 3.8 |
| 2023 | 18.4 | 19.5 | 0.5 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 22.2 | 19.8 | 0.5 | 3.2 |
| 2025 | 18.9 | 17.1 | 0.4 | 2.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Illinois.
572 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
11 violent and 561 property, as reported to the FBI by Niles’ police.
Nine people died in crashes on Niles’s roads in 2019–2023
Niles had 9 fatal crashes in five years, in which nine people died; 5 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is about what is typical for Illinois towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (5.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Niles’s size would see about 8 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Niles’s own rate (6.0) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Niles and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niles | C+ | 0.5 | 19.8 |
| Morton Grove | B+ | 0.5 | 10.5 |
| Chicago | D | 5.2 | 32.8 |
| Niles Township | — | — | — |
| Park Ridge | B+ | 0.6 | 7.8 |
| Glenview | B− | 1.3 | 12.5 |
| Skokie | C− | 1.9 | 26.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Niles Township has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
Illinois towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niles | C+ | 0.5 | 19.8 |
| Huntley | A | 0.3 | 4.7 |
| McHenry | A− | 0.6 | 5.5 |
| Algonquin | B+ | 0.5 | 9.9 |
| Gurnee | C | 1.7 | 21.2 |
| Pekin | C− | 4.3 | 21.5 |
The five graded Illinois towns closest to Niles’ population (30,443), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Niles. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Niles’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (29,705 in 2025); our figure for Niles is 30,443 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Niles
Is Niles, IL safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Niles reports more crime per resident than 57% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #222 of 339 in Illinois. Its police reported 0.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.1 in the rest of Illinois and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Niles?
0.5 violent and 19.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Illinois reports 3.1 and 18.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Niles in 2025?
Niles’s police reported 0 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 0.0 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Niles safer than Morton Grove?
Morton Grove reports less crime per resident than Niles: Morton Grove grades B+ for safety and Niles C+. Morton Grove’s police reported 0.5 violent and 10.5 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Niles?
Niles’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Niles”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Niles.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.