Which big U.S. cities have the most violent crime?

In 2025 Memphis had the highest violent crime rate of the 89 biggest U.S. cities whose police reported a full year to the FBI, about 1,853 per 100,000 people, followed by Detroit (1,654) and Oakland (1,475). Irvine, California (79), and Virginia Beach (101) had the lowest; the U.S. rate was about 330. Violent crime is murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. 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.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end. The dashed line is “U.S. overall”, for comparison. It opens on the top and bottom 10; use “Show all” or the search box for the rest.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

Key facts

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

  • Memphis, TN has the highest figure, 1,852.9, followed by Detroit, MI (1,654.4) and Oakland, CA (1,475.4).
  • Irvine, CA has the lowest figure, 78.7, followed by Virginia Beach, VA (101.1) and Gilbert, AZ (117.4).
  • The highest is 24 times the lowest.
  • U.S. overall: 329.6. Of the 89 compared, 74 are above it and 15 below.

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 most violent crime?” 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/violent-crime-rate-by-city (accessed October 16, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

City Violent crimes per 100,000 people
Memphis, TN 1,852.9
Detroit, MI 1,654.4
Oakland, CA 1,475.4
Kansas City, MO 1,375.8
Cleveland, OH 1,366.7
Baltimore, MD 1,350.5
St. Louis, MO 1,231.4
Wichita, KS 1,210
Milwaukee, WI 1,145
Albuquerque, NM 1,029.7
Stockton, CA 1,028.9
Anchorage, AK 1,026.8
Minneapolis, MN 1,005
Nashville, TN 961.6
Houston, TX 887.6
Denver, CO 882.3
Toledo, OH 872.2
Tulsa, OK 833.6
Philadelphia, PA 830.7
Corpus Christi, TX 799.2
Cincinnati, OH 787.3
Indianapolis, IN 768.8
Aurora, CO 763.3
Washington, DC 749.7
Winston-Salem, NC 744.7
Atlanta, GA 736.2
Buffalo, NY 729.1
Sacramento, CA 720.1
Fresno, CA 720
Seattle, WA 705.9
Greensboro, NC 703.4
Portland, OR 702.3
Lubbock, TX 700
Phoenix, AZ 697.4
Colorado Springs, CO 691
Louisville, KY 682.6
Oklahoma City, OK 681.7
Los Angeles, CA 669.9
New York, NY 660.3
Long Beach, CA 620.8
Boston, MA 583.2
Dallas, TX 576.8
Charlotte, NC 559.1
Reno, NV 550.6
Anaheim, CA 548.2
Riverside, CA 535.2
San Antonio, TX 532.4
Jacksonville, FL 519.3
Newark, NJ 516.6
Durham, NC 507.3
San Jose, CA 505.3
Bakersfield, CA 495.7
St. Paul, MN 491.1
Jersey City, NJ 487.1
San Francisco, CA 486.2
Pittsburgh, PA 467.7
Glendale, AZ 438
Lincoln, NE 426.9
Mesa, AZ 425
Austin, TX 422.6
Chicago, IL 420.4
Las Vegas, NV 412.5
Arlington, TX 406.4
Raleigh, NC 394.5
Tucson, AZ 390.7
Columbus, OH 381.9
San Diego, CA 375.8
Fort Worth, TX 374.9
Chula Vista, CA 367.1
North Las Vegas, NV 361.9
Miami, FL 358.5
Omaha, NE 349.5
Santa Ana, CA 337.4
Tampa, FL 333.2
U.S. overall 329.6
Chesapeake, VA 320.2
Laredo, TX 316.3
El Paso, TX 288.3
Fort Wayne, IN 275.5
Irving, TX 268
Lexington, KY 228.7
Henderson, NV 225.2
Madison, WI 213.9
Garland, TX 191
Honolulu, HI 181.3
Plano, TX 147.1
Chandler, AZ 124.4
Gilbert, AZ 117.4
Virginia Beach, VA 101.1
Irvine, CA 78.7

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.