Which big U.S. cities have the highest murder rates?

In 2025 St. Louis had the highest murder rate of the 89 biggest U.S. cities whose police reported a full year to the FBI, about 51.3 per 100,000 people, followed by Memphis (31.0) and Cleveland (28.0). Irvine, California, reported no murders and Plano, Texas, about 0.7; the U.S. rate was about 4.4. The police in New Orleans, Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida, didn't report a full year of crimes, so they are left out. Each rate is per person the department serves, and a few, such as Las Vegas, Honolulu, Jacksonville and Louisville, serve their whole county. A city's rate also depends on where its borders fall, so compare cities with care.

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Key facts

Measure: Murders per 100,000 people. Written from the data below.

  • St. Louis, MO has the highest figure, 51.3, followed by Memphis, TN (31) and Cleveland, OH (28).
  • Irvine, CA has the lowest figure, 0, followed by Plano, TX (0.7) and Irving, TX (1.5).
  • U.S. overall: 4.4. Of the 89 compared, 57 are above it, 31 below, and 1 the same.

Source and date

Source
FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which big U.S. cities have the highest murder rates?” Chart. Data: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-city (accessed October 16, 2026).

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The data

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City Murders per 100,000 people
St. Louis, MO 51.3
Memphis, TN 31
Cleveland, OH 28
Kansas City, MO 25.9
Detroit, MI 25.7
Milwaukee, WI 25.4
Baltimore, MD 24.2
Cincinnati, OH 20.9
Atlanta, GA 18.6
Washington, DC 16.6
Indianapolis, IN 15.4
Philadelphia, PA 14.7
Minneapolis, MN 14.5
Albuquerque, NM 13.4
Chicago, IL 12.7
Oakland, CA 12.4
Toledo, OH 12.1
Fort Wayne, IN 12
Louisville, KY 12
Greensboro, NC 11.9
Houston, TX 11.4
Stockton, CA 11.4
Durham, NC 10.7
Buffalo, NY 10.5
Dallas, TX 10.5
Winston-Salem, NC 10.5
Newark, NJ 10.4
Pittsburgh, PA 10.1
Oklahoma City, OK 9.7
Charlotte, NC 9
Columbus, OH 9
Wichita, KS 9
Aurora, CO 8.8
Anchorage, AK 8.4
Nashville, TN 7.9
Portland, OR 7.9
Bakersfield, CA 7.8
Jacksonville, FL 7.8
Sacramento, CA 7.8
Fort Worth, TX 7.6
Phoenix, AZ 7.5
Tucson, AZ 7.4
North Las Vegas, NV 7.3
San Antonio, TX 6.8
Long Beach, CA 6.5
Tulsa, OK 6.3
Denver, CO 6
Los Angeles, CA 5.9
Las Vegas, NV 5.5
Omaha, NE 5.3
Austin, TX 5.2
Miami, FL 5.2
Colorado Springs, CO 5
Raleigh, NC 4.9
Reno, NV 4.9
St. Paul, MN 4.9
Lexington, KY 4.5
Lubbock, TX 4.4
U.S. overall 4.4
Chesapeake, VA 4.3
Fresno, CA 4.3
Jersey City, NJ 4.3
Seattle, WA 4.3
Corpus Christi, TX 4.1
Riverside, CA 4
Tampa, FL 4
El Paso, TX 3.8
Glendale, AZ 3.8
Santa Ana, CA 3.8
Boston, MA 3.6
Mesa, AZ 3.5
Arlington, TX 3.4
Gilbert, AZ 3.4
New York, NY 3.4
San Francisco, CA 3.4
Virginia Beach, VA 3.3
Laredo, TX 3
Anaheim, CA 2.6
Chula Vista, CA 2.5
Garland, TX 2.4
San Jose, CA 2.4
Henderson, NV 2
Lincoln, NE 2
Chandler, AZ 1.8
San Diego, CA 1.8
Madison, WI 1.7
Honolulu, HI 1.5
Irving, TX 1.5
Plano, TX 0.7
Irvine, CA 0

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