By type of crime
- 33Overall safety
- 34Property crime
- 31Violent crime
Pedion tou Areos scores 31 out of 100 (modelled estimate, Eurostat 2021–2024) for violent crime — above-average crime, on a scale where 50 is the average for Greece. Pedion tou Areos has no police figures of its own. Its estimate is Athens's rate — Athens scores 23 for violent crime — and the 8 points between them come from how the model shares Athens's total out, not from anything measured in Pedion tou Areos. An estimated 5,815 people live there: the 2021 census counts the surrounding community as a whole, and this is its share by area.
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
What Pedion tou Areos is actually like
Athens' second-largest park, about 277 stremmata of pine and plane between Kypseli, Exarchia and Patision, laid out on former military ground as a memorial to the heroes of 1821 and lined with their statues. It is run by the Region of Attica, not the city. On a weekday it is full of runners, dog walkers, prams and the Panellinios sports club, and it is by a long way the best reason to be in this part of Athens.
After dark
It closes at dusk in winter, around 18:30 to 19:00, and the lighting has historically been poor, so use it in daylight and go around it rather than through it late.
What to watch for
- Drug dealing has a long history here: a market of several hundred users a day near the Mavrommateon entrance was cleared after the park was folded into the central Athens policing plan in 2019, and crime reporting still lists the park among the district's spots
- Poor lighting on the smaller paths — a resident survey found only about ten of roughly sixty lamps working
- The Patision and Mavrommateon edges after dark, adjoining the corridor that carries the district's street crime
- Seasonal closing times that leave you walking the perimeter streets instead
Staying here
Not an accommodation question but a location one: a flat facing the park on the Kypseli side is a genuinely good address, and one on the Patision or Mavrommateon side is a different proposition after midnight.
Reputation against reality. Reputation lags reality here more than almost anywhere in the north. Its 2010s image as an open drug market and no-go zone is out of date — policing since 2019, works on lighting and water features, and a new round of Region of Attica park investment running from September 2026 have made it a working city park again. It is still a daytime park, not a night one.
Streets and squares: Leoforos Alexandras · Mavrommateon · Patision (28is Oktovriou) · Evelpidon · Panellinios sports club
Other neighbourhoods in Athens
Nearby municipalities
Questions people ask
Is Pedion tou Areos safe?+
SafetyMap estimates Pedion tou Areos (Πεδίον Άρεως) at 31 out of 100 for violent crime — 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 estimate for Athens, since there are no police figures for Pedion tou Areos itself. As a rate, the estimate comes to roughly 1,500 property and 180 violent offences per 100,000 residents a year. The written notes on this page class it as “Fine by day, care after dark”.
Is Pedion tou Areos safe at night?+
It closes at dusk in winter, around 18:30 to 19:00, and the lighting has historically been poor, so use it in daylight and go around it rather than through it late.
How does Pedion tou Areos compare with the rest of Athens?+
Pedion tou Areos has no police figures of its own. Its estimate is Athens's rate — Athens scores 23 for violent crime — and the 8 points between them come from how the model shares Athens's total out, not from anything measured in Pedion tou Areos.