By type of crime
- 21Overall safety
- 25Property crime
- 17Violent crime
Votanikos scores 17 out of 100 (modelled estimate, Eurostat 2021–2024) for violent crime — high crime, on a scale where 50 is the average for Greece. Votanikos has no police figures of its own. Its estimate starts from Athens's rate — Athens scores 23 for violent crime — and is adjusted for documented local reporting about Votanikos. An estimated 35,352 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 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 with 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?+
SafetyMap estimates Votanikos (Βοτανικός) at 17 out of 100 for violent crime — high 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, adjusted for documented local reporting about Votanikos; there are no police figures for Votanikos itself. As a rate, the estimate comes to roughly 2,200 property and 270 violent offences per 100,000 residents a year. The written notes on this page class it as “Fine by day, care after dark”.
Is Votanikos safe at night?+
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.
How does Votanikos compare with the rest of Athens?+
Votanikos has no police figures of its own. Its estimate starts from Athens's rate — Athens scores 23 for violent crime — and is adjusted for documented local reporting about Votanikos.