By type of crime
- 29Overall safety
- 27Property crime
- 31Violent crime
Thessaloniki scores 29 out of 100 (modelled estimate, Eurostat 2021–2024) for overall safety — above-average crime, on a scale where 50 is the average for Greece. It is home to about 325,182 people (2021 census), 15,626 per km².
The score is absolute, not a ranking: 50 is the offence rate of Greece as a whole and every doubling of the rate costs the same points, so any two places compare directly. How the scores are made
Updated · police figures: Eurostat 2021–2024 · What's new
Thessaloniki areas to avoid, and where to stay instead
The neighbourhoods we have written notes on: what each is like, what changes after dark, and what the police and the Greek press report. Notes, not just numbers.
Fine by day, care after dark
The note names what changes after dark and where; by day the usual precautions apply.
- 30Koule KafeΚουλέ Καφέ · above-average crimeThe upper-western part of Ano Poli around Plateia Romfeis, beside Vlatades monastery — before the war it was described as the oldest and most attractive quarter in the city, and it is the 'Chora' of the writer Antonis…
- 30FragkomachalasΦραγκομαχαλάς · above-average crimeThe old 'Frankish quarter' between Kapodistriou, Valaoritou, Syngrou, Paikou, Vilara, Katholikon, Leontos Sofou and Frangon — the city's European merchant and banking district in the nineteenth century, holding 34 of…
- 30TsinariΤσινάρι · above-average crimeThe north-western pocket of Ano Poli, above the Dioikitirio, whose core is the tiny square where Alexandras Papadopoulou meets Kleious.
- 30VardarisΒαρδάρης · above-average crimePlateia Dimokratias — Vardaris square — is the city's kilometre zero, where Egnatia ends and Monastiriou runs west to the railway station.
- 30XirokriniΞηροκρήνη · above-average crimeThe north-western working district of the 2nd Municipal Community, settled after 1922 by refugees from Constantinople, Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace and named after a Constantinople quarter.
- 25Ano PoliΆνω Πόλη · above-average crimeThe one large quarter the 1917 fire largely spared, so the Ottoman and Byzantine street plan survives inside the upper walls, around the Trigonio tower, Vlatades and the Eptapyrgio fortress.
Ordinary city neighbourhoods
The usual precautions apply. The note lists anything specific to this place.
- 31TriandriaΤριανδρία · above-average crimeAn independent municipality until it was absorbed into the Municipality of Thessaloniki on 1 January 2011, Triandria is a compact, dense, north-eastern district pressed against the Seih Sou forest above Toumba.
- 30MalakopiΜαλακοπή · above-average crimeA refugee settlement on the south-eastern edge of the conurbation, named by its first inhabitants after Malakopi in Cappadocia, who arrived with the 1923-24 population exchange.
- 30AnalipsiΑνάληψη · above-average crimePart of the eastern 5th Municipal Community, historically the Exoches or Pyrgoi villa belt, now a solidly middle-class residential strip between Papanastasiou, 25is Martiou and the waterfront.
- 30CharilaouΧαριλάου · above-average crimeBuilt from 1920 on land bought by the Thracian banker Epameinondas Charilaos to house people burnt out by the 1917 fire — the first 160 single-storey houses went up around the old French military hospital, and were sold…
- 30EvangelistriaΕυαγγελίστρια · above-average crimeA dense residential grid on the slope above Agiou Dimitriou, named for the Evangelistria cemetery founded in 1875, with the Armenian (1885-87) and Protestant (1887) cemeteries alongside — a set the municipality had…
- 30KallitheaΚαλλιθέα · above-average crimeA small quarter high in Ano Poli built around Plateia Kallitheas, reached up from Olympiados and Apostolou Pavlou.
- 30Mitropolitiki Periochi ThessalonikisΜητροπολιτική Περιοχή Θεσσαλονίκης · above-average crimeThe central metropolitan strip: Aristotelous Square and its axis from Egnatia down to Nikis Avenue, plus Tsimiski, the Kapani and Modiano markets, the port frontage and the waterfront to the White Tower and the Nea…
- 30Nea ElvetiaΝέα Ελβετία · above-average crimeThe far eastern edge of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, named 'New Switzerland' after the cool, wooded grove at the end of Papanastasiou street.
- 30VlatadesΜονή Βλατάδων · above-average crimeStrictly the monastery and the slope around it, at the north-eastern top of Ano Poli inside the walls.
- 30DioikitirioΔιοικητήριο · above-average crimeThe government-house quarter: the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace building, the courts, the Roman Agora and the steep drop from Agiou Dimitriou down to Olympou and the Kapani and Modiano markets.
- 30KamaraΚαμάρα · above-average crimeKamara is the Arch of Galerius where Egnatia meets Dimitriou Gounari, and by extension the student quarter running up to the Rotonda and Navarinou square.
- 30LadadikaΛαδάδικα · above-average crimeThe old oil-merchants' warehouse quarter behind the passenger port, a conservation area restored from the 1980s into the city's densest eating-and-drinking grid.
- 30Panagia FaneromeniΠαναγία Φανερωμένη · above-average crimeA small working-class quarter in the 2nd Municipal Community, tucked behind the north-western walls where the Municipality of Thessaloniki runs into Neapoli and Sykies.
- 25Ano ToumbaΆνω Τούμπα · above-average crimeThe upper, unplanned half of Toumba, thrown up from 1923 by refugees from Asia Minor, Pontos and Eastern Thrace on the hill that gave the district its name.
- 25Kato ToumbaΚάτω Τούμπα · above-average crimeThe planned half of Toumba, laid out between 1924 and 1938 with some 500 brick houses on a regular grid running down toward Papafi and Grigoriou Lampraki.
Where to stay instead
The note recommends it as a base and says for whom. Scores are modelled from the wider area's recorded crime, so the two can differ.
- 30Saranta EkklisiesΣαράντα Εκκλησίες · above-average crimeA refugee settlement founded in the 1920s by people from Saranta Ekklisies in Eastern Thrace, on the slope east of Ano Poli; the streets are still named after lost Thracian towns — Raidestos, Agathoupolis, Skopos…
- 30NtepoΝτεπώ · above-average crimeNamed after the old tram depot, Ntepo belongs to the 5th Municipal Community and is the eastern city's most distinctive historic pocket: this was the Exoches, the villa suburb of wealthy Thessalonians, known locally as…
Districts in Thessaloniki
23 places, by overall safety
All districts, largest first
- 30XirokriniΞηροκρήνη60,848
- 30AnalipsiΑνάληψη36,543
- 25Ano ToumbaΆνω Τούμπα28,715
- 30NtepoΝτεπώ28,278
- 25Kato ToumbaΚάτω Τούμπα24,665
- 30Mitropolitiki Periochi ThessalonikisΜητροπολιτική Περιοχή Θεσσαλονίκης23,668
- 30LadadikaΛαδάδικα15,110
- 30VardarisΒαρδάρης14,557
- 30CharilaouΧαριλάου12,720
- 31TriandriaΤριανδρία9,986
- 30DioikitirioΔιοικητήριο9,292
- 30KamaraΚαμάρα9,173
- 30Nea ElvetiaΝέα Ελβετία9,048
- 30MalakopiΜαλακοπή8,590
- 30Saranta EkklisiesΣαράντα Εκκλησίες6,655
- 30FragkomachalasΦραγκομαχαλάς5,610
- 30VlatadesΜονή Βλατάδων5,133
- 30Panagia FaneromeniΠαναγία Φανερωμένη4,340
- 30TsinariΤσινάρι3,361
- 30KallitheaΚαλλιθέα3,316
- 30Koule KafeΚουλέ Καφέ2,497
- 30EvangelistriaΕυαγγελίστρια1,789
- 25Ano PoliΆνω Πόλη1,287
The number on the right is how many people live there. The one on the left is its safety score out of 100.
Nearby municipalities
Questions people ask
Which areas of Thessaloniki should I avoid?+
No part of Thessaloniki is off limits by daylight. The list below says which blocks change after dark.
Is Thessaloniki safe at night?+
SafetyMap has no time-of-day figures for Thessaloniki: the police data are yearly totals. What changes after dark is in the written notes — each of the 23 neighbourhoods below has its own “After dark” section.
Where should I stay in Thessaloniki?+
The notes recommend Ntepo and Saranta Ekklisies as a base. Each entry below says for whom; the scores beside them are modelled estimates.
Is Thessaloniki safe?+
SafetyMap estimates Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη) at 29 out of 100 for overall safety — above-average crime, on a scale where 50 is the Greek average. It is a modelled estimate, not a count of crimes recorded there: it comes from the police-recorded offence rate of its regional unit (Eurostat, 2021–2024), apportioned by how built-up Thessaloniki is and by documented local reporting. As a rate, the estimate comes to roughly 2,000 property and 180 violent offences per 100,000 residents a year.
How does Thessaloniki compare with the rest of the Thessaloniki regional unit?+
Thessaloniki is estimated at 29 out of 100 for overall safety, against 41 for the Thessaloniki regional unit as a whole — worse than its surroundings.