Crime in America has been slowly but steadily dropping for the past several decades. And despite a small, recent uptick, it’s basically as safe as it’s ever been. However, much like how some parts of a city are more dangerous than others, there are parts of America that still haven’t got the memo that were in a more peaceful time. These are the cities in America where murder is relatively common — yet we must stress, still very uncommon.
In an effort to you make you better aware of these potential danger zones, we dug into the most recent FBI data to determine where the murder rates are the highest amongst America’s largest cities.
In a surprise to no one that’s looked at the data before, Chicago isn’t in the top ten — it’s such a huge city that even high absolute numbers don’t translate into actually high murder rates.
These are the 10 cities in America with the highest murder rates per capita:
The city with the highest murder rate according to the most recent FBI Data? That would be St. Louis with 0.0009 murders per capita — or about 1 for every 1,134 people, which is relatively low compared to historical norms and isn’t THAT dangerous.
So, while murder might be a problem in these cities, we have a feeling that the top offenders will get their murder rates under control in the coming years.
Read on for more information on how we calculated these numbers, or feel free to check out something a little less dreary:
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The 10 Cities With The Highest Murder Rate In America For 2022
1. St. Louis, MO
Population: 298,422
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Murders: 263 (7th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0009 (worst)
More on St. Louis: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
2. New Orleans, LA
Rank Last Year: 6 (Up 4)
Murders: 201 (10th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0005 (2nd worst)
More on New Orleans: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
3. Detroit, MI
Population: 659,616
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Murders: 328 (5th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0005 (3rd worst)
More on Detroit: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
4. Baton Rouge, LA
Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 1)
Murders: 102 (20th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0005 (4th worst)
More on Baton Rouge: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
5. Memphis, TN
Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 3)
Murders: 289 (6th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0004 (5th worst)
More on Memphis: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
6. Cleveland, OH
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 3)
Murders: 160 (16th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0004 (6th worst)
More on Cleveland: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
7. Shreveport, LA
Rank Last Year: 20 (Up 13)
Murders: 69 (28th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0004 (7th worst)
More on Shreveport: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
8. Kansas City, MO
Population: 499,335
Rank Last Year: 7 (Down 1)
Murders: 176 (14th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0004 (8th worst)
More on Kansas City: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
9. Dayton, OH
Population: 140,193
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 5)
Murders: 46 (48th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0003 (9th worst)
More on Dayton: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
10. Milwaukee, WI
Population: 589,105
Rank Last Year: 27 (Up 17)
Murders: 191 (12th worst)
Murders Per Capita: 0.0003 (10th worst)
More on Milwaukee: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living
Methodology: How We Determined The Murder Capitals Of America For 2022
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we didn’t want to rely on speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report which summarizes the number of murders that happen in each city per year.
We only looked at cities in America with over 100,000 people — that left us with 283 cities in America to analyze.
We then calculated the number of murders per capita for these cities to make everything an apples to apples comparison along with the raw number of murders — because more absolute murder is more murder.
We then averaged the two rankings together to create a Murder Index.
The cities with a higher Murder Index were deemed the “Murder Capitals of America For 2022”. You can download the data here.
We must note that this report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments. It simply states where murders occurred.
Summary: Locking Up Murders Row For 2022
There you have it — a look at the cities with the highest murder rates in America for 2019 with St. Louis at the top of the list.
If you’re looking for the safest cities in America when it comes to murder, check out Lee’s Summit and Temecula.