Fred Holland Day House · Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0Norwood records less property crime per head than two in three U.S. towns
Its letter for safety is B+, worked out from crimes Norwood’s police reported over 2023 to 2025: #149 of 276 graded towns in Massachusetts. The local count comes to 1.4 violent crimes and 7.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people each year, with 3.0 and 10.3 in the rest of Massachusetts. The graded rate fell 28% from 2023 to 2025. One of the 4 towns next door with figures records less crime per resident.
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 Norwood
1 of the 4 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 4 Massachusetts towns on Norwood’s borders, 4 have a Safety Grade: Sharon (A+), Walpole (B), Westwood (B), Canton (B−). Neighbors ↓
Among Massachusetts towns, closer to the middle
Massachusetts’ cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Norwood’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 46% of the 276 Massachusetts towns we grade, against 65% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Norwood has 19,866 jobs based in town for 31,714 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Norwood’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Norwood property | Rest of Massachusetts property | Norwood violent | Rest of Massachusetts violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.3 | 10.5 | 1.6 | 3.2 |
| 2023 | 8.5 | 10.9 | 1.4 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 7.1 | 10.3 | 1.7 | 3.0 |
| 2025 | 5.9 | 9.8 | 1.2 | 2.9 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Massachusetts.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Norwood | Rest of Massachusetts | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.2 | 2.9 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Norwood’s police reported 136 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.0 in the rest of Massachusetts and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Norwood 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 about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
227 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.
39 violent and 188 property, as reported to the FBI by Norwood’s police.
Six people died in crashes on Norwood’s roads in 2019–2023
Norwood had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which six people died. Most of these deaths (4 of 6) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Massachusetts towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (4.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Norwood’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Norwood’s own rate (3.8) 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.
Norwood and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Massachusetts towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norwood | B+ | 1.4 | 7.2 |
| Wellesley | A | 0.4 | 4.1 |
| North Andover | A− | 1.0 | 5.2 |
| North Attleborough Town | B+ | 1.0 | 8.5 |
| Tewksbury | B− | 2.6 | 9.5 |
| Northampton | C | 4.3 | 11.8 |
The five graded Massachusetts towns closest to Norwood’s population (31,714), 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 Norwood. 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 Norwood’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (31,727 in 2025); our figure for Norwood is 31,714 (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 Norwood
Is Norwood, MA safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Norwood reports less crime per resident than 65% of U.S. towns, a B+ Safety Grade and #149 of 276 in Massachusetts. Its police reported 1.4 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 Norwood?
1.4 violent and 7.2 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.
How many homicides were there in Norwood in 2025?
Norwood’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 Norwood safer than Canton?
Canton reports more crime per resident than Norwood: Canton grades B− for safety and Norwood B+. Canton’s police reported 3.1 violent and 5.8 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Norwood?
Norwood’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Norwood”. 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 Norwood.
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.