Photo: Rehua · CC BY-SA 4.0Gardner reports less property crime than most U.S. towns, but more violent crime
Overall, Gardner grades B− for safety (#208 of 276 graded towns in Massachusetts): close to the middle of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MA” is every other Massachusetts 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 Gardner
5 of the 5 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 5 Massachusetts towns on Gardner’s borders, 5 have a Safety Grade: Hubbardston (A), Templeton (A−), Ashburnham (A−), Westminster (B), Winchendon (B−). Neighbors ↓
Among Massachusetts towns, lower
Massachusetts’ cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Gardner’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 25% of the 276 Massachusetts towns we grade, against 47% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Gardner is home to Mount Wachusett Community College, with 2,378 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 5% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Gardner’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Property crime holds Gardner’s grade up; violent crime pulls it down. Its violent rate (3.1) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Gardner’s police reported 199 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.1 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Massachusetts and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Gardner | Rest of Massachusetts | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.0 | 3.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 8 property crimes reported
And about 4 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
Reported crime is steady
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 Massachusetts.
Show as a table
| Year | Gardner property | Rest of Massachusetts property | Gardner violent | Rest of Massachusetts violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.5 | 10.5 | 2.0 | 3.2 |
| 2023 | 7.6 | 10.9 | 2.6 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 6.2 | 10.3 | 3.3 | 3.0 |
| 2025 | 7.5 | 9.8 | 3.5 | 2.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
234 crimes reported in 2025
74 violent and 160 property, as reported to the FBI by Gardner’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
12 people died in crashes on Gardner’s roads in 2019–2023
Gardner had 11 fatal crashes in five years, in which 12 people died; 3 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist.
That is 11.3 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for Massachusetts towns of 5,000–25,000 people (5.2, 222 towns).
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.
Gardner and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gardner | B− | 3.1 | 7.1 |
| Templeton | A− | 1.3 | 3.0 |
| Ashburnham | A− | 1.4 | 4.3 |
| Westminster | B | 2.3 | 4.5 |
| Winchendon | B− | 2.7 | 6.3 |
| Hubbardston | A | 0.7 | 3.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
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 Gardner. 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 Gardner’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (21,365 in 2025); our figure for Gardner is 21,483 (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 Gardner
Is Gardner, MA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Gardner reports more crime per resident than 53% of U.S. towns, a B− Safety Grade and #208 of 276 in Massachusetts. Its police reported 3.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Massachusetts and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Gardner?
3.1 violent and 7.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Massachusetts reports 3.0 and 10.3; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Gardner?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Gardner safer than Templeton?
Templeton reports less crime per resident than Gardner: Templeton grades A− for safety and Gardner B−. Templeton’s police reported 1.3 violent and 3.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Gardner?
Gardner’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Gardner”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Gardner.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.