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

In 2025, Memphis, TN 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, MI (1,654) and Oakland, CA (1,475). Irvine, CA (79) and Virginia Beach, VA (101) had the lowest; the U.S. rate was about 330. Violent crime is murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In 2025 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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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.

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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.

The bigger picture, in plain words: Is crime falling in the U.S.?, Which big U.S. cities have the highest murder rates, and is it falling?

Writing about this? Key numbers with a citation for each: U.S. crime statistics

For class

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How to read this chart

Each bar is one big city's violent crimes reported to the FBI in a year (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) for every 100,000 people its police department serves. The dashed line is the rate for the whole U.S. Dividing by population makes big and small cities fair to compare, but a city's rate also depends on where its borders fall.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find the city with the highest rate and the one with the lowest. About how many times higher is the top rate?
  2. Some departments police a whole county, suburbs included. How could that change a city's rate compared with one that covers only its downtown?
  3. These are crimes reported to police. What kinds of crime might never show up in these numbers, and why?

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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 November 7, 2026).

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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. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

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

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