Summary
Yes, and safer than a year ago: Buenos Aires recorded 78 murders in 2025, or 2.5 per 100,000, the lowest in 31 years, and 27% fewer robberies. As of now, the city has not published its 2026 figures, so whether that fall held this year is not yet known.
The city average hides wide differences between barrios. Saavedra and Villa Urquiza sit in a comuna with no murders in 2024 and few robberies, while Barracas has the highest murder rate in our table, 8.3 per 100,000, and is one of four barrios where we advise care.
The north comes out best. Núñez, Belgrano and Colegiales share one of the calmest comunas in the city, and Villa Devoto is just as quiet.
For a foreigner, the everyday risk is a phone or bag snatched, not violence. Motorbike robberies fell only 3% in 2025, far less than robberies overall, and the UK still asks for extra care in Palermo, San Telmo, La Boca and Retiro.
Official figures by comuna can mislead. Puerto Madero is the calmest barrio day to day, yet its comuna shows 4.6 murders per 100,000, because the same district includes Retiro's bus terminal and Barrio 31.
Barracas has the sharpest split inside one barrio: pleasant pockets north of Montes de Oca, and armed robbery toward the Villa 21-24 settlement to the south.
So Buenos Aires is safer than its street-crime reputation suggests, but it rewards picking the barrio and the block with care.
Our Buenos Aires safety table by neighborhood
This table gives our verdict for each of the 17 Buenos Aires neighborhoods we track, with the official comuna, murder rate, robbery level, whether the area feels safe at night and the main thing a foreign resident should watch.
It also gives our confidence level and the local context behind each verdict, which helps when the same official comuna contains streets that feel completely different.
If you want real answers from the field about a specific home or street, ask a pro in Buenos Aires for free.
| Neighborhood |
Verdict our short answer |
Comuna official district iOfficial comuna of the barrio. |
Murder rate per 100,000, 2024 iSNIC 2024 homicide rate of the comuna, read on the official PDF. |
Robberies vs city average, 2024iComuna rate: Lower < 2,000 per 100,000, Average 2,000-3,000, Higher > 3,000 (both SNIC readings give the same levels). |
Feels safe at night? residents and travel adviceiOur reading of ICiudad risk maps, UK FCDO areas to watch and resident threads. |
Main thing to watch for foreigners iICiudad crime mix by zone, UK FCDO, El Cronista barrio rankings. |
Why what drives the verdict here |
Data confidence iHigh: direct data for this neighborhood. Medium: one strong source, or several pointing the same way, with our own estimate. Low: few signals, an order of magnitude. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Puerto Madero | Safe | Comuna 1 | 4.6 | Higher | Yes | Quiet, empty streets late | The calmest barrio day to day, with private security everywhere. The comuna figures look bad because they include Barrio 31 next door. | Medium |
| Núñez | Safe | Comuna 13 | 0.4 | Lower | Yes | Phone snatching | Among the lowest crime rates in the city. Normal big‑city care with your phone is enough. | High |
| Palermo | Safe | Comuna 14 | 0.4 | Average | Mostly | Phone and bag snatching | Busy, with lots of tourists, so plenty of phone and bag theft. Violent crime is rare. | Medium |
| Belgrano | Safe | Comuna 13 | 0.4 | Lower | Yes | Phone snatching | Low crime for its comuna and calm residential streets. Keep your phone out of sight on the avenues. | High |
| Colegiales | Safe | Comuna 13 | 0.4 | Lower | Yes | Phone snatching | Same low‑crime comuna as Belgrano and Núñez, and quieter. A very safe pick. | High |
| Saavedra | Safe | Comuna 12 | 0.0 | Lower | Yes | Phone snatching | Its comuna had the lowest robbery rate and no murders in 2024. Quiet and residential. | High |
| Villa Urquiza | Safe | Comuna 12 | 0.0 | Lower | Yes | Phone snatching | Same low‑crime comuna as Saavedra. Residents describe it as calm. | High |
| Chacarita | Safe | Comuna 15 | 1.6 | Average | Mostly | Edges near the rail yards | Robbery rate around the city average. Fine overall, a bit rougher near the rail yards and the cemetery. | Medium |
| Recoleta | Safe | Comuna 2 | 1.3 | Average | Mostly | Pickpockets, phone snatching | Robbery rate around the city average, mostly pickpockets. Residents walk it at night but take a car very late. | Medium |
| Villa Devoto | Safe | Comuna 11 | 1.1 | Lower | Yes | Phone snatching | Low crime and quiet streets of houses. One of the calmest barrios. | High |
| Villa Crespo | Safe | Comuna 15 | 1.6 | Average | Mostly | Phone snatching | Robbery rate around the city average. Lively, safe enough with normal care. | Medium |
| Caballito | Safe | Comuna 6 | 1.6 | Lower | Mostly | Motorbike thieves | Low robbery rate for such a central barrio. Motorbike phone snatching is the thing to watch. | High |
| Retiro | Take care | Comuna 1 | 4.6 | Higher | Busy streets only | Bus terminal and Barrio 31 edges | Elegant blocks next to the bus terminal and Barrio 31. Pick the street carefully. | Medium |
| Almagro | Safe | Comuna 5 | 2.1 | Average | Mostly | Phone snatching | Robbery rate around the city average. Central and busy, normal care. | Medium |
| Barracas | Take care | Comuna 4 | 8.3 | Higher | Busy streets only | Armed robbery south of Montes de Oca | Highest murder rate in our table, driven by the Villa 21-24 settlement. Nice pockets exist north of Montes de Oca. | Medium |
| San Telmo | Take care | Comuna 1 | 4.6 | Higher | Busy streets only | Pickpockets, mustard scam | Charming but on the UK's list of areas to watch. Pickpockets and scams around the market. | Medium |
| San Cristóbal | Take care | Comuna 3 | 2.6 | Higher | Busy streets only | Phone and bag snatching | High robbery rate in its comuna (with Balvanera). Fine by day, busy streets only at night. | Medium |
Travel advice: US Level 1, normal precautions (May 2026); the UK asks for extra care in Palermo, San Telmo, La Boca and Retiro. Murder and robbery rates are for the whole comuna in 2024 (SNIC), the latest official split.
How we got these numbers. We read 255 signals from 50 websites; for safety: the city's Mapa del Delito 2025, the national SNIC 2024 table by comuna (homicide and robbery rates), ICiudad's risk maps, US and UK travel advice, El Cronista's barrio rankings and resident threads. Rates come straight from SNIC for each barrio's comuna; the night feeling and the main risk are our reading of ICiudad, the UK advice and residents.
Source: TheLatinvestor property database, November 2026.
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Message a proIs Buenos Aires still safe now?
Yes: Buenos Aires is safe enough for normal daily life, with a 2025 murder rate of 2.5 per 100,000 and far fewer robberies than the year before.
The city's 2025 crime report, the Mapa del Delito, puts the murder rate at the lowest level since its series began in 1995. The US State Department keeps Argentina at Level 1, its lowest, with normal precautions.
The answer changes from barrio to barrio. We rate 13 of the 17 neighborhoods we track as safe and advise care in four: Retiro, Barracas, San Telmo and San Cristóbal.
At the calm end, Saavedra and Villa Urquiza share a comuna with no murders in 2024 and few robberies, and Núñez, Belgrano and Colegiales are almost as quiet. At the other end, Barracas has the highest murder rate in our table, and San Cristóbal sits in a comuna with high robbery levels.
The UK's current advice singles out Palermo, San Telmo and Retiro for extra care, mostly about phones, bags, tourist streets and transport hubs.
The city kept adding police on the street in 2026, with 600 more officers and targeted operations where complaints pile up. Residents describe the same thing: most of the city feels normal, while a terminal, a nightlife strip or the edge of a settlement a few blocks away needs more attention.
Did Buenos Aires get safer in 2025?
Absolutely: Buenos Aires got clearly safer in 2025, with 78 murders, the lowest number in 31 years, and robberies down 27% from 2024.
The fall held through the whole year. The Mapa del Delito shows robberies down by the same margin in both halves of 2025, so it did not come from one quiet stretch.
La Nación reported in February 2026 that the decline covered thefts, vehicle crime, armed robbery and motorbike robbery.
Motorbike robberies were the stubborn part: they rose in the first half of 2025, fell in the second, and ended the year down only 3%. That explains why residents see a safer city in the figures and still talk constantly about motochorros, the thieves who snatch phones from a motorbike.
What happened in 2026 is not known yet. As of now, the city has not published its 2026 crime figures, and the latest official split by comuna is for 2024. What we can see is where police put their effort this year: settlements, transport hubs and the market for stolen phones.
The table below shows the 2025 figures we rely on and what is still missing for 2026.
| Measure | 2025 | Change vs 2024 | Source | 2026 figures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murders, whole city | 78 | Lowest in 31 years | Mapa del Delito | Not published yet |
| Murder rate | 2.5 per 100,000 | Lowest since 1995 | Mapa del Delito | Not published yet |
| Robberies | — | −27% | Mapa del Delito | Not published yet |
| Motorbike robberies | — | −3% | Mapa del Delito | Not published yet |
| Murder rates by comuna | Latest split is 2024 | — | SNIC | Not published yet |
Is phone snatching a bigger risk than violent crime in Buenos Aires?
For most foreigners, yes: in Buenos Aires today, losing a phone or a bag is a far more likely risk than serious violence.
In most of the barrios we rate safe, the main thing to watch is a phone or bag snatched, a pickpocket or a motorbike thief. Caballito is a good example: a low robbery rate for such a central barrio, yet thieves on motorbikes are its main risk.
The city now treats the resale of stolen phones as a security problem. In August 2026, it declared a temporary emergency on used-phone sales and repairs, added tracing rules and named four first high-risk zones: Retiro-Microcentro, Balvanera-Once, Liniers-Límite Oeste and Chacarita-Villa Crespo. By early September, it said 112 shops had been closed.
We found no 2026 count of phone or bag snatchings yet; the decree itself is the clearest sign that the problem has not gone away.
The UK's advice describes the same risk: phones snatched in public and bags taken by thieves on motorbikes.
The phone crackdown zones are telling. Retiro-Microcentro and Balvanera-Once are busy central areas, while Chacarita-Villa Crespo sits far from the tourist core. The common thread is a market for stolen phones and the streets around it, so a foreigner in a calm barrio still needs to keep the phone away from the curb on a busy avenue.
Are Palermo and Recoleta safe despite all the tourist theft?
Yes: Palermo and Recoleta are safe places to live, but their crowded streets make petty theft part of daily life.
Palermo's comuna has one of the lowest murder rates in the city, 0.4 per 100,000, with robberies around the city average. Recoleta's is a little higher, at 1.3, also with average robberies. Residents of both mostly feel safe at night.
Palermo holds the bigger contradiction: violent crime is rare, yet the UK specifically asks travelers to take extra care there, around nightlife and busy shopping streets where phones, bags and tourists gather.
A May 2026 case reported by La Nación shows the pattern: police in Palermo arrested two motorbike thieves after a phone robbery and found several phones on them.
Recoleta feels calmer. Its main risks are pickpockets and phone snatching, residents walk it at night but take a car very late, and it is not on the UK's list.
Compared with the quieter north, the difference is not safe against unsafe. Belgrano and Núñez have fewer robberies; Palermo and Recoleta simply put a phone, bag or wallet in front of a thief more often.
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Message a proAre Núñez, Belgrano and Colegiales the safest part of northern Buenos Aires?
Among the safest, yes: Núñez, Belgrano and Colegiales share one of the calmest comunas in Buenos Aires, with few robberies and streets residents walk at night without worry.
All three sit in Comuna 13, and our confidence is high, because the official figures and what residents say agree.
The barrios feel different but carry the same risk. Núñez is quiet and residential, Belgrano has busy avenues and calm side streets, and Colegiales is smaller and quieter still. In all three, a snatched phone is the main thing to watch, mostly on the avenues.
The city trend adds to that. Comuna 13 already had fewer robberies than the city average in 2024, before the citywide fall of 2025.
Only Saavedra and Villa Urquiza, next door in Comuna 12, look calmer on paper.
Are Saavedra and Villa Urquiza safer than the famous central neighborhoods?
Yes: Saavedra and Villa Urquiza have the cleanest safety record in Buenos Aires, in a comuna with no murders in 2024 and the lowest robbery rate in the city.
Both are safe in our table, residents call them calm, and a snatched phone is the main practical risk.
The central barrios do worse on every count. Recoleta, Villa Crespo and Almagro have robbery rates around the city average and murder rates between 1.3 and 2.1 per 100,000. San Telmo sits in a comuna with high robbery levels and calls for care at night.
Saavedra and Villa Urquiza are residential, with few tourist magnets, bus terminals or nightlife strips. A foreign resident simply meets fewer situations where a phone or a bag makes them an obvious target.
Villa Devoto, farther west, has the same profile: low crime, quiet streets of houses, and a murder rate of 1.1 per 100,000. The calm northwest is not one lucky row in our table; several barrios point the same way.
Is Puerto Madero really safe if Comuna 1 looks risky?
Absolutely: Puerto Madero is safe, even though its comuna, Comuna 1, shows 4.6 murders per 100,000 and higher-than-average robberies.
Comuna 1 covers far more than Puerto Madero. It also includes Retiro, with its bus terminal and Barrio 31, and San Telmo. Puerto Madero itself has private security everywhere, controlled building access and little through traffic.
Finer tools now exist. The city's 2025 crime data is mapped by barrio, address and hour, and ICiudad published in September 2026 a risk map built from ten years of data, by crime type and time of day.
Puerto Madero's drawback is simpler: its streets get quiet and empty late, which is the main thing to watch there.
Retiro and San Telmo share the same comuna figure but call for care, because the terminal, the settlement's edge and the tourist streets make for a much tougher street life.
The table below shows what each comuna in our table mixes together, and why one rate can cover very different streets.
| Comuna | Barrios in our table | Murder rate | Our verdicts | Also in the comuna |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comuna 1 | Puerto Madero, Retiro, San Telmo | 4.6 | 1 safe, 2 take care | Barrio 31, Retiro bus terminal |
| Comuna 2 | Recoleta | 1.3 | Safe | — |
| Comuna 3 | San Cristóbal | 2.6 | Take care | Balvanera and Once |
| Comuna 4 | Barracas | 8.3 | Take care | Villa 21-24, La Boca, Parque Patricios |
| Comuna 12 | Saavedra, Villa Urquiza | 0.0 | Safe | — |
| Comuna 13 | Núñez, Belgrano, Colegiales | 0.4 | Safe | — |
| Comuna 14 | Palermo | 0.4 | Safe | — |
| Comuna 15 | Chacarita, Villa Crespo | 1.6 | Safe | Rail yards, cemetery |
Note: murder rates per 100,000 in 2024 (SNIC), the latest official split by comuna.
Is Retiro safe enough to live in?
Only on the right blocks: Retiro calls for care, with higher-than-average robberies and streets that are best walked only when busy at night.
The bus terminal is one main reason. UK travel advice flags Retiro and its bus terminal for pickpockets, bag theft and phone snatching. The barrio also borders Barrio 31, where the city kept up heavy police operations through 2026.
In September 2026, the city included Villa 31 in a simultaneous operation across 15 settlements, with more than 1,500 police and inspectors. In late October and early November, La Nación reported drug arrests and a fatal shooting linked to drug gangs inside Villa 31.
Retiro-Microcentro was also one of the first zones named in the city's 2026 crackdown on stolen-phone resale, a risk a resident meets around stations and shopping streets rather than on the elegant blocks near Plaza San Martín.
So Retiro depends on the exact address. The streets toward Plaza San Martín and Recoleta can feel comfortable; the approaches to the terminal and the edge of Barrio 31 call for much more care.
For someone considering Retiro, the route from the building to the station, the supermarket and evening transport matters more than the barrio name on the listing.
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Message a proIs San Telmo safe at night now?
Not everywhere: San Telmo calls for care at night, when only its busy streets are comfortable, and its robbery levels are higher than the city average.
Pickpockets and the mustard scam are the main risks, especially around the market and the tourist streets. The UK singles out San Telmo Market and the wider area for extra caution, and describes the scam: one person distracts a victim while an accomplice takes the bag.
The city kept operations running in this central-southern zone in 2026. In May, it said its enforcement campaign had recovered occupied buildings in San Telmo and nearby central barrios.
The split is easy to feel after dark. Restaurant and bar streets stay lively well into the evening, while a parallel side street can empty quickly. Someone who likes San Telmo does not need to rule it out, but the usual route home matters more here than in Belgrano or Saavedra.
San Telmo shares its comuna figures with Puerto Madero, yet the two feel nothing alike: San Telmo has dense tourist crowds, old side streets and a bigger pickpocket and scam problem.
Where does Barracas become risky?
Toward the south: Barracas gets much rougher near the Villa 21-24 settlement, while the pockets north of Montes de Oca are pleasant.
We advise care in Barracas as a whole. Its comuna, Comuna 4, has the highest murder rate in our table, robberies above the city average, and streets that are best walked only when busy at night.
Montes de Oca is a useful guide, not a hard border. North of it, residents describe nice pockets; south of it, armed robbery is the main thing to watch.
The city's 2026 policing follows that map. The September operation across 15 settlements included Villa 21-24, and the city holds separate weekly security meetings for Comuna 4, which covers Barracas, La Boca, Parque Patricios and Nueva Pompeya.
Barracas needs a closer look at the address than any other barrio in our table: the gap between its northern pockets and its southern edge is large enough that the barrio name alone tells a buyer little.
Is San Cristóbal safe enough for a foreign resident?
Only with some care: San Cristóbal is fine by day, but its comuna has high robbery levels, and at night only busy streets are comfortable.
Phone and bag snatching are the main risks.
Comuna 3 also includes Balvanera and Once, where the city repeatedly targeted stolen-phone resale and street disorder in 2026. In August, police raided phone shops in Once, and the stolen-phone decree named Balvanera-Once among its first high-risk zones.
San Cristóbal differs from Once block by block, so the comuna figure needs a local reading before it is applied to one address.
The neighbors do better. Almagro is safe, with average robberies and streets residents mostly walk at night. Caballito is safe too, with low robbery levels, though motorbike thieves remain its main risk.
Someone comparing flats across those three barrios is looking at a real change in everyday street life, not a small statistical gap: at night, San Cristóbal asks for noticeably more care than Almagro or Caballito.
Can you walk around Buenos Aires safely at night?
Yes, in much of Buenos Aires: residents feel safe at night in Núñez, Belgrano, Colegiales, Saavedra, Villa Urquiza, Villa Devoto and Puerto Madero, while Retiro, Barracas, San Telmo and San Cristóbal are best walked only on busy streets.
Palermo, Recoleta, Chacarita, Villa Crespo, Caballito and Almagro sit in between: mostly fine, with some streets to avoid late.
That makes the route matter more than the hour. In San Telmo, a restaurant street can stay busy while the next block empties. In Retiro, the gap between Plaza San Martín and the terminal approaches is sharper still. Chacarita needs a little more care near the rail yards and the cemetery.
The UK advice follows the same map, flagging Palermo, San Telmo, Retiro and the central transport and tourist corridors for pickpockets, phone snatching and motorbike bag theft. The US position is broader: Argentina stays at Level 1, with petty crime highlighted in tourist areas.
The calm northern barrios allow more spontaneity at night; in the four barrios where we advise care, staying on lively streets and avoiding empty routes near known trouble spots is what residents do.
So, is Buenos Aires still safe now?
Yes. Buenos Aires is safe for someone thinking of living there: it recorded its lowest murder rate since 1995 in 2025, robberies fell sharply, and we rate 13 of the 17 barrios we track as safe. As of now, 2026 figures are not out, so we cannot say yet whether that fall continued this year.
The calmest daily life is in the north and northwest. Saavedra, Villa Urquiza, Núñez, Belgrano, Colegiales and Villa Devoto combine low crime with quiet residential streets.
Palermo, Recoleta, Caballito, Chacarita, Villa Crespo and Almagro are safe too, but the risk feels more urban: phones, bags, pickpockets and motorbike thieves on crowded streets. The slow fall in motorbike robberies explains why theft still feels visible.
Puerto Madero shows why comuna figures should not be read too literally: one official rate covers its calm towers, Retiro's terminal and Barrio 31. The city's mapped crime data and ICiudad's risk map are far more useful once a buyer is choosing an exact address.
Retiro, Barracas, San Telmo and San Cristóbal call for care. Barracas has the highest murder rate in our table at 8.3 per 100,000; Retiro combines a major transport hub with Barrio 31; San Telmo has more tourist theft; San Cristóbal sits in a comuna with high robbery levels.
Our murder and robbery rates are official, but by comuna and from 2024; the feeling at night and the main risk are our reading of travel advice, risk maps and residents. That is why our confidence is high only where both agree.
What to watch: the city's 2026 crime report, a first split by comuna for 2025, and whether the phone-resale crackdown brings snatching down. For a buyer, the exact block, the walk to transport and a phone kept out of sight matter more than any headline rate.
Our methodology
Our data runs through November 2026. We compare 17 Buenos Aires neighborhoods by our verdict, their official comuna, the 2024 murder rate per 100,000, robberies against the city average, how safe the area feels at night, the main risk for foreigners and our confidence level.
We read 255 signals from 50 websites. For safety, the backbone is the city's Mapa del Delito 2025, the national SNIC 2024 table by comuna, ICiudad's risk maps, US and UK travel advice, El Cronista's barrio rankings and resident threads. Murder and robbery rates come straight from SNIC for each barrio's comuna; the feeling at night and the main risk are our reading of ICiudad, the UK advice and residents.
High confidence means strong sources agree on both the official crime figures and the street-level picture. Medium means one strong source, or several that point the same way, with our own reading for the neighborhood built from the figure for its comuna and what we know of its streets. Cells we could not estimate well are left empty.
The main limit is geography. A comuna is larger than a barrio and can join very different areas, especially Comuna 1, where Puerto Madero, Retiro and San Telmo share one official rate. We use the comuna rate as the official base, then finer maps, travel advice and residents for the barrio reading.
Police statistics count recorded crime, and the Mapa del Delito notes that reporting and classification can affect property-crime totals. So we look for patterns that appear across several sources and keep serious violence apart from opportunistic theft.
A sceptical reader may ask why we keep 2024 comuna rates when 2025 citywide data exists. The 2024 SNIC table is the latest official split by comuna, the same for all 17 barrios; the 2025 city report tells us the direction for Buenos Aires as a whole. Using both keeps the barrio comparison consistent without ignoring the fresher trend.
Key sources used for this analysis include Buenos Aires Mapa del Delito 2025, homicide and robbery trends, Official 2025 geolocated crime dataset by barrio, time and crime type, National SNIC criminal-statistics portal, US Level 1 travel advisory and petty-crime guidance, UK Buenos Aires street-crime, neighborhood and scam guidance, ICiudad relative-risk map by hour and crime type, 2025 fall in homicides, robberies and other crime categories, 2025 robbery totals, motochorro trend and homicide context, 2026 stolen-phone emergency decree and high-criticality zones, Official legal basis for stolen-phone controls and territorial concentration, September 2026 closures of stolen-phone resale premises, May 2026 Palermo motochorro case illustrating phone-theft pattern, September 2026 security operation including Villa 31 and Villa 21-24, November 2026 narco-related homicide inside Villa 31, October 2026 Villa 31 drug arrests and police operation, Weekly neighborhood security meetings by comuna, 2026 expansion of street policing and prevention deployment and May 2026 operations in villas and recovered occupied properties.
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