Πλάκα · district
Plaka scores 42 out of 100 for overall safety — above-average crime, on a scale where 50 is the average for Greece. It is home to about 10,972 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.
Plaka is the old village under the north and east slopes of the Acropolis - narrow lanes, neoclassical houses, small museums and an unbroken run of tavernas and souvenir shops. Adrianou is the main tourist artery and Kydathineon the more atmospheric pedestrian spine; above them, Anafiotika is a pocket of whitewashed Cycladic-style houses built in the 1840s by workers from Anafi, and the quietest corner of the district. It is heavily touristed and genuinely beautiful at the same time.
Plaka stays lit and populated late - restaurant terraces, walkers and evening tour groups. It is one of the most comfortable places in Athens to walk at midnight.
The default first-trip choice, and rightly so: everything is walkable and the streets feel safe at any hour. Expect tourist-priced food and steps everywhere; travellers with mobility needs or a car will find Makrygianni easier.
Reputation against reality. Plaka has no meaningful safety reputation problem - the common complaint is the opposite, that it is a tourist-trap. Fair enough on the main two streets; one block off Adrianou or Kydathineon the crowds thin quickly.
Streets and squares: Adrianou · Kydathineon · Anafiotika · Hadrian's Arch (Plaka entrance) · Dionysiou Areopagitou