Center City Deemed One Of Philly's Safest Areas In New Report

PHILADELPHIA — Despite what you may experience, Center City is one of Philadelphia's safest neighborhoods, according to a new study.

The Brookings Institution recently released findings of a new study it conducted called "The geography of crime in four U.S. cities: Perceptions and reality."

New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Philadelphia were the cities examined in the study.

"Citywide crime increased between 2019 and 2022, driven primarily by property crimes—but downtowns accounted for a very small share of these increases," according to the report's findings.

In Philadelphia, there was a 38 percent increase in property crimes from 2019 to 2022, and a 1 percent increased in violent crime in that same time frame, per the study.

"And Center City Philadelphia accounted for less than 1% of the increase in both categories," according to the study.

In fact, the study says property crime in Center City declined from 2019 to 2022.

While the report points to Philadelphia being safer than perceived by some, homicides in the city reached a high of 562 in 2021. 2022 saw 516 homicides, and so far in 2023 there have been 118.

Homicides in Philadelphia have been increasingly nearly every year since 2009, according to police statistics.

See the full study from the Brookings Institution online here.