Chile Safety Map
ENES

La Serena

Medium-high incidencePopulation: 267,400
6,009
Rate per 100,000 inhabitants (2025)
More reported crime than 71%
of Chile's communes
CEAD 2025 · #102 of 346 · 1 = most reported incidence
More reported crime than 67%
of communes in Coquimbo
CEAD 2025 · #5 of 15 · 1 = most reported incidence

Annual evolution (2005–present)

Stable
3% above national average
2% below regional average

Reported incidence by crime category (2025)

Life crimes1130
Property crimes1933
Violent robbery417
Disorder1456
Domestic violence770
Drug crimes66
Weapons237

Note: this is CEAD’s "Drug Crimes" family — criminal offences under Ley 20.000 (trafficking, micro-trafficking and cultivation). It is a low-volume, mostly police-detected category. Public drug or alcohol consumption is classified by CEAD under Disorder, not here, so this figure understates total drug-related police activity.

Homicides (2025)

2 per 100,000 inhabitants (6 cases)

Source: CEAD, subgroup 101 Life Crimes (2025)

Crime evolution by category (2005–present)

Life crimes

2005–2026

Property crimes

2005–2026

Violent robbery

2005–2026

Disorder

2005–2026

Domestic violence

2005–2026

Drug crimes

2005–2026

Weapons

2005–2026

Homicide

2005–2026

Faded points indicate partial-year data.

(date of our last download from CEAD) 2026 is a partial year: its figures include only what CEAD had published by June 16, 2026. It is not used for the headline rate or rankings, and appears as a faded point in the trend charts. The latest complete year is 2025.

Composite Crime Index (2024)

25High
#100 of 346 nationally · #6 in Coquimbo
Composite of reported crimes (CEAD/SPD), adjusted for SII economic activity. Does not reflect unreported crime. Reference year: 2024.

Household Victimization (ENUSC 2024)

6.8%(2024)
95% confidence interval: 5.1% – 8.8%
INE experimental estimate (SAE-modeled). Proportion of households reporting at least one violent crime. Covers 136 of 346 comunas. Distinct from CEAD reported-crime index — measures victimization survey responses, not police denuncias. Source: INE Estadísticas Experimentales, Seguridad Ciudadana.

Recent Incidents in the News

Incidents reported by Chilean news media and geolocated in La Serena. Each entry links to its source article.

See all news incidents for La Serena →

Automatically classified from press coverage; not official statistics. Sources are always cited.

Comparable commune (same region)

OvalleCoquimbo
5,448per 100k inh.#133 of 346Declining

View on Map

See La Serena on the interactive Chile crime map →

Similar Communes in This Region

Communes in Coquimbo with similar reported CEAD incidence rates:

CommuneRate per 100k
National rankTrend
Ovalle5,448#133Declining
Illapel5,364#140Rising
Monte Patria4,856#183Rising
Salamanca4,767#191Declining
Coquimbo7,619#28Rising

Glossary

Rankings by Crime Type

Official CEAD data for La Serena (Coquimbo region) show a stable trend in reported crime incidence. The commune ranked 102 of 346 nationally in 2025, recording 6,008.7 incidents per 100,000 inhabitants.

La Serena is one of the communes that make up the Coquimbo region. Within the region, it holds regional rank 5, a position that reflects its incidence level relative to other communes in the same administrative area. Regional comparisons are particularly relevant because they account for shared socioeconomic conditions, urban density patterns, and local reporting infrastructure that may influence measured incidence across the region.

The reported incidence rate of La Serena in 2025 is close to the per-capita national mean computed across non-low-population communes. The difference is within a narrow margin, suggesting that the commune's reported activity broadly tracks the national level for communes of comparable data quality.

Within Coquimbo, La Serena's 2025 rate is close to the regional per-capita mean. The commune sits near the midpoint of its regional distribution, indicating that its reported incidence aligns broadly with the typical level for the region.

In 2025, the leading category in La Serena's reported crime profile was property crimes, which accounted for the largest share of total reported incidents. The second most prevalent category was public-order incidents. This composition reflects La Serena's particular urban and socioeconomic characteristics. The CEAD breakdown covers seven crime families: crimes against persons, property crimes, violent robbery, public-order incidents, domestic violence, drug-related offenses, and weapons offenses. The relative weight of each category in the total rate is visible in the incidence-by-category chart above.

A useful reference point for contextualizing La Serena's data is Ovalle (Coquimbo), identified as the nearest comparable commune within the same region based on reported incidence. In 2025, Ovalle recorded approximately 5,447.6 incidents per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 6,008.7 for La Serena. The two communes share a similar incidence tier, making the comparison informative for understanding La Serena's position relative to a concrete peer rather than an abstract national average. Ovalle holds national rank 133 of 346.

Looking at the full CEAD time series, La Serena recorded 7,301.8 incidents per 100,000 inhabitants in 2005. Since then, the reported rate has decreased, reaching 6,008.7 in 2025. The multi-year series is displayed in the sparkline chart above, which shows annual values from 2005 through 2025. The most recent year of partial data (if available) is shown at reduced opacity to indicate that the figure is not yet complete. Year-on-year fluctuations are normal and can reflect changes in recording practices, population estimates, or law enforcement priorities rather than changes in underlying behavior.

The data presented here are sourced from CEAD (Centro de Estudios y Análisis del Delito), the official Chilean body that compiles police-reported crime statistics. All figures represent reported incidents — actual incidence may differ due to under-reporting, which varies by crime type and territory. The 2025 rate of 6,008.7 incidents per 100,000 inhabitants for La Serena reflects the most recent complete annual data available at the time of this publication. For more information on methodology and the rate-per-100,000 definition, see the methodology section.