Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Bar Harbor records less crime per resident than 85% of U.S. towns
Counting crimes Bar Harbor’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades A for safety: #19 of 78 graded towns in Maine. Out of every 1,000 residents, 0.5 violent crime and 4.9 incidents of property crime are reported annually, against 1.2 and 13.7 in the rest of Maine.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of ME” is every other Maine 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 Bar Harbor
1 of the 1 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 5 Maine towns on Bar Harbor’s borders, 1 have a Safety Grade: Gouldsboro (A+). Trenton, Lamoine, Mount Desert and Hancock have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
A job center
Bar Harbor has 4,166 jobs based in town for 5,352 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 Bar Harbor’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; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bar Harbor | Rest of Maine | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bar Harbor’s police reported 11 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.2 in the rest of Maine and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bar Harbor 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.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Bar Harbor property | Rest of Maine property | Bar Harbor violent | Rest of Maine violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4.9 | 15.6 | 0.4 | 1.2 |
| 2023 | 5.7 | 14.2 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 4.8 | 14.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| 2025 | 4.3 | 12.1 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
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 Maine.
37 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.
4 violent and 33 property, as reported to the FBI by Bar Harbor’s police.
Nine people died in crashes on Bar Harbor’s roads in 2019–2023
Bar Harbor had 7 fatal crashes in five years, in which nine people died; 2 were pedestrians.
That is more than is typical for Maine towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (6.7 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bar Harbor’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bar Harbor’s own rate (34.3) 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.
Bar Harbor and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar Harbor | A | 0.5 | 4.9 |
| Gouldsboro | A+ | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Trenton | — | — | — |
| Lamoine | — | — | — |
| Mount Desert | — | — | — |
| Hancock | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Trenton, Lamoine, Mount Desert and Hancock have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Maine towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar Harbor | A | 0.5 | 4.9 |
| Sabattus | A | 0.6 | 2.4 |
| North Berwick | A | 0.9 | 3.0 |
| Waldoboro | B+ | 0.4 | 8.8 |
| Paris | B | 1.1 | 9.2 |
| Norway | B | 0.4 | 15.0 |
The five graded Maine towns closest to Bar Harbor’s population (5,352), 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 Bar Harbor. 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 Bar Harbor’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (7,604 in 2025); our figure for Bar Harbor is 5,352 (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 Bar Harbor
Is Bar Harbor, ME safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bar Harbor reports less crime per resident than 85% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #19 of 78 in Maine. Its police reported 0.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.2 in the rest of Maine and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bar Harbor?
0.5 violent and 4.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Maine reports 1.2 and 13.7; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is Bar Harbor safer than Gouldsboro?
Gouldsboro reports less crime per resident than Bar Harbor: Gouldsboro grades A+ for safety and Bar Harbor A. Gouldsboro’s police reported 0.4 violent and 0.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Bar Harbor?
Bar Harbor’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bar Harbor”. 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 Bar Harbor.
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.