Memphis, Tennessee records the highest violent crime rate among the most dangerous cities in the US: 1,849.4 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, which works out to roughly one for every 54 people. That is 5.6 times the national rate of 327.6. Detroit comes second at 1,649.1, and all ten cities below stay above 1,200.
The figures come from the 2025 edition of the FBI’s Crime in the United States city table, published in 2026, and cover cities with 100,000 or more residents. Each entry shows population, violent crime counts, the violent crime rate and the murder rate, because the two rates do not always point to the same cities.
Ten Highest Violent Crime Rates Among US Cities of 100,000 or More
| # | City | Population | Violent crimes | Violent crimes per 100,000 | Murders per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Memphis, Tennessee | 606,629 | 11,219 | 1,849.4 | 31.2 |
| 2 | Detroit, Michigan | 642,155 | 10,590 | 1,649.1 | 25.7 |
| 3 | Little Rock, Arkansas | 205,320 | 3,048 | 1,484.5 | 21.4 |
| 4 | Oakland, California | 444,211 | 6,554 | 1,475.4 | 12.4 |
| 5 | Kansas City, Missouri | 518,039 | 7,094 | 1,369.4 | 26.1 |
| 6 | Cleveland, Ohio | 363,659 | 4,947 | 1,360.3 | 28.3 |
| 7 | Baltimore, Maryland | 562,811 | 7,578 | 1,346.5 | 23.8 |
| 8 | Peoria, Illinois | 111,389 | 1,392 | 1,249.7 | 10.8 |
| 9 | Birmingham, Alabama | 195,393 | 2,415 | 1,236.0 | 42.5 |
| 10 | St. Louis, Missouri | 274,819 | 3,364 | 1,224.1 | 51.3 |
Violent crime here means murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. For comparison, the national murder rate in 2025 was 4.1 per 100,000.
Most Dangerous Cities in the US, Ranked From Memphis to St. Louis
1. Memphis, Tennessee: One Violent Crime for Every 54 Residents
Population: 606,629 · Violent crimes: 11,219 · Violent crime rate: 1,849.4 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 31.2 per 100,000
Memphis logged 189 murders, 333 rapes, 1,473 robberies and 9,224 aggravated assaults, an average of about 31 violent crimes a day. Aggravated assault accounts for 82.2 percent of the total, and the murder rate of 31.2 per 100,000 is the third highest among all 335 cities of 100,000 or more.
The year-earlier figures were higher: 15,338 violent crimes and 249 murders, a rate of 2,501.3. The 2025 rate is 26.1 percent lower, the steepest fall of any city in this ranking.
2. Detroit, Michigan: Assault Makes Up More Than Five of Every Six Crimes
Population: 642,155 · Violent crimes: 10,590 · Violent crime rate: 1,649.1 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 25.7 per 100,000
Detroit has the largest population of the ten and the largest share of aggravated assault: 8,949 of 10,590 violent crimes, or 84.5 percent. The rest are 935 robberies, 541 rapes and 165 murders, which gives one violent crime for every 61 residents.
In 2024 the city recorded 11,599 violent crimes and 203 murders, so murders fell 18.7 percent while the overall rate slid 7.4 percent, from 1,781.3. The murder rate of 25.7 per 100,000 is seventh among the 335 cities.
3. Little Rock, Arkansas: Nine Points Behind Oakland on 205,000 Residents
Population: 205,320 · Violent crimes: 3,048 · Violent crime rate: 1,484.5 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 21.4 per 100,000
Little Rock’s rate sits 9.1 per 100,000 above Oakland’s, even though Oakland has more than twice the population and more than twice the violent crimes. The city recorded 2,437 aggravated assaults, 348 robberies, 219 rapes and 44 murders.
Rape makes up 7.2 percent of the total, a larger share than in Detroit, Oakland or Memphis. Murders rose from 36 in 2024 to 44 in 2025 while the overall rate dropped from 1,672.0 to 1,484.5, and the murder rate ranks twelfth of 335.
4. Oakland, California: Robbery Is More Than a Quarter of the Total
Population: 444,211 · Violent crimes: 6,554 · Violent crime rate: 1,475.4 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 12.4 per 100,000
Oakland counted 1,743 robberies, which is 26.6 percent of its violent crimes, alongside 4,432 aggravated assaults, 324 rapes and 55 murders. Its murder rate of 12.4 per 100,000 ranks thirty-second of 335, far below its position on overall violent crime.
Murders fell from 81 to 55, and violent crimes fell from 8,376 to 6,554, a rate drop of 23.4 percent from 1,925.3. Oakland sent all 12 months of data through the FBI’s older Summary Reporting System, so its definitions match the other cities but the collection method does not.
5. Kansas City, Missouri: 135 Murders in a City of 518,000
Population: 518,039 · Violent crimes: 7,094 · Violent crime rate: 1,369.4 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 26.1 per 100,000
The Missouri city reported 5,560 aggravated assaults, 1,036 robberies, 363 rapes and 135 murders. Its murder rate of 26.1 per 100,000 is sixth of 335, a place that ties it more closely to Detroit and Cleveland than to Oakland.
Kansas City, Kansas is a separate city across the state line, at 970.6 violent crimes per 100,000. In Missouri, the rate fell 11.5 percent from 1,547.1, with violent crimes down from 7,914 and murders down from 141.
6. Cleveland, Ohio: Robbery Is One Crime in Five
Population: 363,659 · Violent crimes: 4,947 · Violent crime rate: 1,360.3 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 28.3 per 100,000
Of Cleveland’s 4,947 violent crimes, 1,048 were robberies (21.2 percent), 3,383 were aggravated assaults, 413 were rapes and 103 were murders. The murder rate of 28.3 per 100,000 is fifth among the 335 cities, about 6.9 times the national figure.
The 2024 count was 5,663 violent crimes and 109 murders, so the rate came down 12.9 percent from 1,561.1. Cleveland’s overall rate is only 9.1 per 100,000 below Kansas City, Missouri, which sits one place above it.
7. Baltimore, Maryland: Murders Down From 197 to 134
Population: 562,811 · Violent crimes: 7,578 · Violent crime rate: 1,346.5 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 23.8 per 100,000
Baltimore’s 134 murders are 32 percent fewer than the 197 in 2024, and total violent crimes fell from 9,101 to 7,578. The rate dropped 16.2 percent from 1,606.2, the third-largest fall in the ranking after Memphis and Oakland.
Its 2,342 robberies are the most of any city here and 30.9 percent of its violent crimes, with 4,832 aggravated assaults and 270 rapes making up the rest. The murder rate of 23.8 per 100,000 is ninth of 335.
8. Peoria, Illinois: Rape Is 15.6 Percent of Violent Crime
Population: 111,389 · Violent crimes: 1,392 · Violent crime rate: 1,249.7 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 10.8 per 100,000
Peoria recorded 1,015 aggravated assaults, 217 rapes, 148 robberies and 12 murders. The rape share of 15.6 percent is the highest of the ten, and the 12 murders produce a rate of 10.8 per 100,000, forty-fifth among the 335 cities.
Size changes how a rate behaves. One additional murder adds about 0.9 to Peoria’s murder rate but only 0.16 to Memphis’s, which is why smaller cities swing more from year to year. Peoria’s violent crime rate fell 7.1 percent from 1,344.9, with 1,475 violent crimes and 14 murders in 2024.
9. Birmingham, Alabama: A Murder Rate More Than Ten Times the National Figure
Population: 195,393 · Violent crimes: 2,415 · Violent crime rate: 1,236.0 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 42.5 per 100,000
Birmingham’s 83 murders on a population of 195,393 give a rate of 42.5 per 100,000, the second highest of the 335 cities and 10.4 times the national 4.1. Murder is still only 3.4 percent of its violent crimes, next to 1,909 aggravated assaults, 385 robberies and 38 rapes.
The overall rate barely moved, from 1,246.6 to 1,236.0, a fall of 0.8 percent on 2,436 violent crimes the year before. Murders fell from 115 to 83, a drop of 27.8 percent that the total hardly reflects.
10. St. Louis, Missouri: Tenth Overall, First for Murder Rate
Population: 274,819 · Violent crimes: 3,364 · Violent crime rate: 1,224.1 per 100,000 · Murder rate: 51.3 per 100,000
St. Louis reported 141 murders, which is 4.2 percent of its 3,364 violent crimes, the largest share in the ten. The city recorded about three-quarters of Memphis’s murder count with 45 percent of its population, and its rate of 51.3 per 100,000 is the highest of all 335 cities.
The remaining counts are 2,528 aggravated assaults, 585 robberies and 110 rapes. The violent crime rate fell 10.5 percent from 1,367.1, and murders fell from 150 to 141. Dayton, Ohio (1,221.6) and Springfield, Missouri (1,213.7) follow within 11 points.
Why Rates Put Memphis Ahead of New York Despite Far Fewer Crimes
New York recorded 55,782 violent crimes in 2025, nearly five times Memphis’s 11,219. Its population of 8,496,850 is 14 times larger, so its rate is 656.5 per 100,000 against Memphis’s 1,849.4. A resident of Memphis faces a recorded violent crime rate about 2.8 times higher.
The pattern holds across the biggest cities. Los Angeles is at 667.7, Phoenix at 694.5, Philadelphia at 822.7 and Houston at 886.1, which is the highest of the group yet still below tenth-place St. Louis. Chicago stands at 420.4 for violent crime, but its 346 murders are more than any city in the top ten, and its murder rate of 12.7 per 100,000 is higher than Oakland’s.
Violent Crime Fell Nearly Everywhere in 2025, Including All Ten Cities
The national rate dropped 9.7 percent, from 362.9 per 100,000 in 2024 to 327.6 in 2025, while murders fell 18.1 percent to 14,085. Robbery declined 18.5 percent, aggravated assault 7.2 percent and rape 7.6 percent. Every city in the ranking recorded a lower rate than the year before, from 0.8 percent in Birmingham to 26.1 percent in Memphis.
Cities as a group sit above the nation: all reporting cities average 384.0 per 100,000, cities of 250,000 or more 626.9 and cities of 100,000 to 249,999 398.9. Of the 335 cities in the table, 197 are above the national rate, 21 are at or above 1,000 and the median is 368.2.
The Murder Rate Leaders Are Not Quite the Same Cities
Ranked by murders per 100,000, the order is St. Louis (51.3), Birmingham (42.5), Memphis (31.2), Montgomery, Alabama (30.8) and Cleveland (28.3). Kansas City, Missouri (26.1), Detroit (25.7), Milwaukee (25.4), Baltimore (23.8) and Richmond, Virginia (22.9) complete the ten. Montgomery, Milwaukee and Richmond do not appear in the violent crime top ten.
The reason is composition. Aggravated assault is between 63.8 percent of violent crimes in Baltimore and 84.5 percent in Detroit, and murder is between 0.84 percent in Oakland and 4.2 percent in St. Louis. A city can lead on one rate and rank much lower on the other.
How the Rates Are Built From the FBI’s City Counts
The FBI’s city table prints population and offense counts for each reporting agency but no rates. The rates here are computed from the FBI’s reported counts and populations: violent crimes divided by population, multiplied by 100,000. The FBI derives each population by applying estimated growth since the last decennial census to the agency’s latest estimate, and counts only the most serious offense in an incident.
The FBI advises against ranking cities from crime data alone. It points to population density, the share of young residents, how many people commute in and out, economic conditions, climate, police strength, prosecution and court policy, and how willing residents are to report crime. A city rate also covers only the land inside the city limits, not the suburbs around it.
The table covers only agencies that supplied 12 months of data. Four cities of 100,000 or more are absent for that reason: Gainesville, Florida (7 months), Topeka, Kansas (8), Worcester, Massachusetts (9) and Greensboro, North Carolina (10). Jackson, Mississippi appears with 555 violent crimes for 138,701 residents, about 400 per 100,000, a figure far below the city’s recent history, so it is left out of the ranking.
Checks Before You Compare Two Cities Using These Numbers
A rate of 1,849.4 per 100,000 equals one violent crime for every 54 residents in a year, and says nothing about which blocks those crimes came from. Compare murder rates and aggravated assault counts separately, confirm the city name against its state (Springfield appears in Illinois, Massachusetts and Missouri), and note that consolidated agencies such as Metropolitan Nashville, at 943.8, cover jurisdictions that differ from the city limits.
Local costs and wages also shape a move, as the guides to minimum wage by state and states with no income tax show. The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer hosts the downloadable tables for every city outside the top ten.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many violent crimes does Memphis record in a day?
About 31. Memphis logged 11,219 violent crimes in 2025, which is 30.7 a day on average, and 189 murders. That is down from 15,338 violent crimes and 249 murders a year earlier.
Is the city with the highest crime rate also the city with the most murders?
Not always. Among the ten in this ranking, Memphis has the most murders (189) but St. Louis has the highest murder rate (51.3 per 100,000). Chicago reported 346 murders, more than any city in the ranking, at a rate of 12.7.
Why is Chicago missing from the most dangerous cities in the US?
Its violent crime rate is 420.4 per 100,000 on 11,417 violent crimes in a population of 2,715,488. That is above the national 327.6 but well below the 1,224.1 that places St. Louis tenth.
Did violent crime rise or fall in these cities?
It fell in all ten. Rates dropped between 0.8 percent in Birmingham and 26.1 percent in Memphis, and the national rate fell 9.7 percent to 327.6 per 100,000. Little Rock was the only one of the ten with more murders, 44 against 36.
