Votanikos scores 24 out of 100 for property crime — above-average crime, on a scale where 50 is the average for Greece. It is home to about 35,352 people at 16,579 people per km².
The score is absolute, not a ranking: 50 is the offence rate for Greece as a whole, 100 the safest end of the scale and 0 the least safe, and every doubling of the rate costs the same number of points wherever you are. Regional units are scored from Eurostat's police-recorded offence rates per 100,000 inhabitants. Greece publishes nothing finer, so municipalities and districts share out their region's measured rate by how built-up they are and by documented local reporting — treat those two levels as an estimate, not a count of reported crime.
What Votanikos is actually like
An unplanned, half-industrial pocket on both sides of Iera Odos in the western municipality, roughly 5,000-6,000 residents in about half a square kilometre. Part of it is a genuine village of low houses with gardens and streets named after things like joy and spring; the rest is warehouses, workshops and yards. The Agricultural University sits here, the Panathinaikos stadium is going up as part of the Double Redevelopment, and the wider Elaionas around it is one of the poorest tracts in the city.
After dark
Outside the university and the stadium works the streets are empty, unlit and industrial after dark, with no shops or passing trade — a place you drive through rather than walk.
What to watch for
- The industrial blocks around Orfeos, Konstantinoupoleos and Iera Odos, deserted at night
- Wider Elaionas: a deprived, semi-derelict area that housed a large refugee camp and hosts a weekend recyclers' bazaar
- Stadium construction traffic and closed pavements around the Votanikos site until the ground opens
- Poor basic infrastructure in the unplanned part — residents reported no sewerage and no pharmacy or supermarket nearby
Staying here
Skip it as a base. There are almost no visitor beds, nothing to walk to, and connections are awkward; the only future case for it is football, once the stadium opens.
Reputation against reality. It barely registers in travel writing at all, which is accurate — it is not dangerous so much as unfinished and unserved. That will change over the next few years as the stadium and the Elaionas masterplan land.
Streets and squares: Iera Odos · Orfeos · Konstantinoupoleos · Markoni · Efkalipton
Other neighbourhoods in Athens
Nearby municipalities
Questions people ask
Is Votanikos safe?
Votanikos (Βοτανικός) scores 24 out of 100 for property crime on SafetyMap — above-average crime, on a scale where 50 is the Greek average. That is based on the police-recorded offence rate of its regional unit, apportioned by how built-up Votanikos is and by documented local reporting. That works out to about 2,745 property offences and 267.5 violent offences per 100,000 residents a year.
Is Votanikos safe at night?
Votanikos records more crime than most of Greece, so stay on busy, lit streets late at night, keep phones and bags out of sight, and use licensed taxis rather than walking long distances alone.
How does Votanikos compare with the rest of Athens?
Votanikos scores 24 out of 100 for property crime, against 27 for Athens as a whole — worse than its surroundings.