States Ranked by Violent Crime Rate
All 50 states ordered by the FBI's 2024 reported violent crime rate per 100,000 residents, with murder rates and honest caveats about what police data can and cannot show.
How this ranking works
This ranking uses one ruler: the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and legacy summary submissions, published for calendar year 2024, the most recent full year available. Violent crime here means the FBI's four index offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Murder rates from the same 2024 release are cited as a secondary check, because murder is the offense least affected by reporting differences. The national 2024 violent crime rate was 359.1 per 100,000 and the national murder rate was 5.0 per 100,000 (FBI, 2025).
Every state is ranked. Safest at the top, most dangerous at the bottom, all 50 in sequence. Because a lower crime rate is the better outcome, the rate itself doubles as the score field, and the subscores for the top and bottom tiers invert the raw rates so that a fuller meter always reads safer. The District of Columbia is excluded because this is a ranking of states; for context, its 2024 reported violent crime rate of 1,005.5 per 100,000 exceeded every state (FBI, 2024).
The caveats are stated plainly, because they are real. These are crimes reported to police, not crimes that occurred; the Bureau of Justice Statistics victimization survey consistently finds that a large share of violent crime is never reported. Agency participation, though far better than during the troubled 2021 NIBRS transition, still varies by state, and a state where fewer agencies report completely can look safer than it is. Mississippi is the clearest example: its FBI-reported violent crime rate is among the nation's lowest, while CDC death-certificate data have repeatedly placed its homicide death rate among the nation's highest. Death certificates do not depend on police paperwork. Where police data and public-health data disagree, both are shown.
The framework pays no attention to which party governs a state, which cities anchor it, or what its politicians say about crime. Only the counted offenses matter.
1MaineSafest state, Northeast100.1
The lowest reported violent crime rate in the nation at 100.1 per 100,000, less than a third of the national rate of 359.1 (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Maine reported 100.1 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, the lowest of any state, alongside a murder rate of 2.3 per 100,000, less than half the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024). Its combination of low population density and high NIBRS reporting coverage means the figure is unusually reliable, not an artifact of missing agencies.
2New HampshireNortheast110.1
A violent crime rate of 110.1 per 100,000 and the lowest murder rate of any state at 1.0 per 100,000, one-fifth the national murder rate (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: New Hampshire posted the lowest murder rate in the country at 1.0 per 100,000 in 2024, one-fifth the national 5.0, atop the nation's second-lowest violent crime rate of 110.1 (FBI, 2024). On the murder benchmark, the offense least distorted by reporting, it is the safest state in America.
3ConnecticutNortheast136.0
136.0 violent crimes per 100,000, roughly 62 percent below the national rate (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Connecticut reported 136.0 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 2.5 per 100,000 in 2024, both roughly half the national figures, despite housing dense post-industrial cities such as Hartford and Bridgeport (FBI, 2024).
4Rhode IslandNortheast153.6
153.6 per 100,000, completing a four-state northeastern sweep of the safest tier (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Rhode Island reported 153.6 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 2.1 per 100,000 in 2024, completing a clean sweep of the four safest states by the Northeast (FBI, 2024).
5WyomingMountain West203.4
203.4 per 100,000, the lowest rate outside the Northeast (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Wyoming reported 203.4 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, the lowest rate of any state outside the Northeast, with a murder rate of 2.4 per 100,000 (FBI, 2024).
6MississippiSouth; see reporting caveat210.5
The reported rate is 210.5 per 100,000, but this entry carries the ranking's biggest asterisk: CDC death-certificate data have repeatedly placed Mississippi's homicide death rate among the highest in the nation, a signal that offenses are undercounted in its police data, not absent (FBI, 2024; CDC WISQARS/NCHS).
The receipts: Mississippi's reported violent crime rate of 210.5 per 100,000 ranks sixth safest, yet its FBI-reported murder rate of 7.4 is nearly 50 percent above the national 5.0, and CDC death-certificate data place its homicide death rate at or near the top of all states (FBI, 2024; CDC NCHS). The gap between a low reported violent crime rate and a high murder rate is the signature of undercounted non-fatal offenses.
7KentuckySouth213.1
213.1 per 100,000, among the lowest reported rates in the South (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Kentucky reported 213.1 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, among the lowest in the South, though its murder rate of 6.1 runs above the national 5.0, a divergence worth noting (FBI, 2024).
8HawaiiPacific217.7
217.7 per 100,000, tied with New Jersey and about 39 percent below the national rate (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Hawaii reported 217.7 violent crimes per 100,000 and one of the nation's lowest murder rates at 1.6 per 100,000 in 2024, roughly a third the national murder rate (FBI, 2024).
9New JerseyNortheast217.7
217.7 per 100,000 in the nation's most densely populated state, a standing rebuttal to the assumption that density means danger (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: New Jersey, the most densely populated state, reported 217.7 violent crimes per 100,000 and a low murder rate of 2.3 in 2024 (FBI, 2024). Its standing directly contradicts the assumption that population density drives violent crime.
10VirginiaSouth Atlantic217.9
217.9 per 100,000. Virginia was an early full-state NIBRS adopter, so its low rate comes with strong reporting coverage behind it (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Virginia reported 217.9 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 4.8 in 2024 (FBI, 2024). As an early full-state NIBRS adopter, its low reported rate is backed by among the most complete agency reporting in the South.
11VermontNortheast219.1
219.1 per 100,000, keeping northern New England's three states all inside the safest dozen (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Vermont reported 219.1 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 3.4 in 2024, keeping all three northern New England states inside the safest dozen (FBI, 2024).
12NebraskaMidwest220.5
220.5 per 100,000, about 39 percent below the national rate (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Nebraska reported 220.5 violent crimes per 100,000 and a low murder rate of 2.1 in 2024, about 39 percent below the national violent crime rate (FBI, 2024).
13UtahMountain West229.6
229.6 per 100,000, with murder rates that run near the bottom of the state table (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Utah reported 229.6 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 2.6 in 2024, both well below national levels (FBI, 2024).
14IdahoMountain West230.6
230.6 per 100,000, one of the lowest murder-rate states in the country alongside New Hampshire and Iowa (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Idaho reported 230.6 violent crimes per 100,000 and the nation's second-lowest murder rate at 1.6 in 2024, near New Hampshire's national low of 1.0 (FBI, 2024).
15IowaMidwest243.3
243.3 per 100,000, with a murder rate below 3.0 per 100,000 (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Iowa reported 243.3 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 2.1 in 2024, among the ten lowest murder rates of any state (FBI, 2024).
16West VirginiaSouth248.8
248.8 per 100,000, one of the lower reported rates in the South, with a murder rate of 5.3 near the national level (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: West Virginia reported 248.8 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, below the national rate, though its murder rate of 5.3 sits just above the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
17North DakotaMidwest254.3
254.3 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 2.6, both well below the national averages (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: North Dakota reported 254.3 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 2.6 in 2024, both meaningfully below national levels (FBI, 2024).
18MinnesotaMidwest256.6
256.6 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 2.9, roughly 29 percent below the national violent crime rate (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Minnesota reported 256.6 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 2.9 in 2024, despite concentrated violence in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area (FBI, 2024).
19FloridaSoutheast267.1
267.1 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 3.9, both below the national averages after years of historically partial reporting improved (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Florida reported 267.1 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 3.9 in 2024, both below national levels, as its long-incomplete agency participation continued to improve (FBI, 2024).
20WisconsinMidwest278.5
278.5 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 4.2, below the national averages (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Wisconsin reported 278.5 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 4.2 in 2024, both below the national figures (FBI, 2024).
21IllinoisMidwest289.2
289.2 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.8, a statewide rate below the national average despite concentrated violence in parts of Chicago (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Illinois reported 289.2 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, below the national rate, with a murder rate of 5.8 slightly above it, a statewide figure that masks sharp neighborhood concentration in Chicago (FBI, 2024).
22OhioMidwest293.7
293.7 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.0, exactly the national murder rate (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Ohio reported 293.7 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, below the national violent crime rate, with a murder rate of 5.0 matching the national figure (FBI, 2024).
23IndianaMidwest312.9
312.9 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.5, just above the national murder rate (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Indiana reported 312.9 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, below the national violent crime rate, with a murder rate of 5.5 modestly above the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
24MassachusettsNortheast314.7
314.7 per 100,000 but with a murder rate of just 1.8, among the lowest of any state (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Massachusetts reported 314.7 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, near the national rate, yet a murder rate of only 1.8, among the five lowest of any state, illustrating how aggravated assault counts can lift a state's violent crime rate while lethal violence stays rare (FBI, 2024).
25GeorgiaSoutheast325.7
325.7 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 6.9, a violent crime rate just below the national average (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Georgia reported 325.7 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, just below the national rate, with a murder rate of 6.9 well above the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
26WashingtonPacific Northwest326.1
326.1 per 100,000 with a low murder rate of 3.8, a violent crime rate just under the national average (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Washington reported 326.1 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, below the national rate, with a murder rate of 3.8 well below the national figure (FBI, 2024).
27OregonPacific Northwest331.0
331.0 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 3.7, both below the national averages (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Oregon reported 331.0 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 3.7 in 2024, both below national levels (FBI, 2024).
28AlabamaSouth; see reporting caveat359.9
359.9 per 100,000, right at the national rate, but with a murder rate of 8.7, among the highest in the nation, a divergence that mirrors the Mississippi undercount signal (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Alabama's reported violent crime rate of 359.9 per 100,000 sits at the national average, yet its murder rate of 8.7 is among the highest of any state, the same low-reported-rate, high-murder pattern that flags undercounted non-fatal offenses in Mississippi (FBI, 2024; CDC NCHS).
29DelawareSouth Atlantic360.8
360.8 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.7, right around the national averages (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Delaware reported 360.8 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 5.7 in 2024, both near the national figures (FBI, 2024).
30New YorkNortheast380.2
380.2 per 100,000 but with a murder rate of just 2.7, one of the lowest of any state despite anchoring the nation's largest city (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: New York reported 380.2 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, above the national rate, yet a murder rate of only 2.7, roughly half the national figure, a persistent gap driven by high assault reporting alongside historically low homicide in New York City (FBI, 2024).
31PennsylvaniaNortheast245.6
245.6 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.0, exactly the national murder rate (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Pennsylvania reported 245.6 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, well below the national violent crime rate, with a murder rate of 5.0 matching the national figure (FBI, 2024).
32North CarolinaSoutheast375.8
375.8 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 7.5, a violent crime rate just above the national average (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: North Carolina reported 375.8 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, above the national rate, with a murder rate of 7.5 well above the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
33MarylandSouth Atlantic420.4
420.4 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 7.2, both above the national averages (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Maryland reported 420.4 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 7.2 in 2024, both above national levels, driven substantially by Baltimore (FBI, 2024).
34ArizonaSouthwest421.9
421.9 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 4.9, a violent crime rate about 17 percent above the national average (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Arizona reported 421.9 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, about 17 percent above the national rate, with a murder rate of 4.9 near the national figure (FBI, 2024).
35OklahomaSouth422.8
422.8 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 6.3, both above the national averages (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Oklahoma reported 422.8 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 6.3 in 2024, both above national levels (FBI, 2024).
36NevadaMountain West402.0
402.0 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 6.1, both above the national averages (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Nevada reported 402.0 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 6.1 in 2024, both above the national figures, concentrated heavily in the Las Vegas metropolitan area (FBI, 2024).
37MichiganMidwest434.3
434.3 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.2, a violent crime rate about 21 percent above the national average (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Michigan reported 434.3 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, about 21 percent above the national rate, with a murder rate of 5.2 just above the national figure (FBI, 2024).
38South CarolinaSouth436.7
436.7 violent crimes per 100,000, about 22 percent above the national rate, with a murder rate of 7.5 (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: South Carolina reported 436.7 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, about 22 percent above the national rate, with a murder rate of 7.5 well above the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
39KansasMidwest438.7
438.7 per 100,000, the highest reported rate in the central Midwest, though its murder rate of 3.8 is below the national average (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Kansas reported 438.7 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, the highest in the central Midwest, but a below-average murder rate of 3.8, indicating the elevation is driven by non-lethal offenses (FBI, 2024).
40MontanaMountain West423.5
423.5 per 100,000 but with a low murder rate of 2.7, one of the widest gaps between a high violent crime rate and low lethal violence of any state (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Montana reported 423.5 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, above the national rate, yet a murder rate of only 2.7, illustrating that aggravated assault, not homicide, drives its elevated violent crime figure (FBI, 2024).
41TexasSouth389.4
389.4 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.2, both near the national averages in the state with the second-largest raw number of reported offenses (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Texas reported 389.4 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 5.2 in 2024, both close to national levels, in a state whose sheer population produces one of the largest raw offense counts in the country (FBI, 2024).
42MissouriMidwest462.0
462.0 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 7.8, driven substantially by concentrated violence in its two major metropolitan areas (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Missouri reported 462.0 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 7.8 in 2024, both well above national levels, concentrated heavily in St. Louis and Kansas City (FBI, 2024).
43ColoradoMountain West476.3
476.3 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 4.5, a violent crime rate roughly one-third above the national average (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Colorado reported 476.3 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, about a third above the national rate, though its murder rate of 4.5 is below the national figure (FBI, 2024).
44CaliforniaPacific486.0
486.0 per 100,000, about 35 percent above the national rate, in the state with by far the largest raw number of reported violent offenses, though its murder rate of 4.5 is below the national average (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: California reported 486.0 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, about 35 percent above the national rate and the largest raw offense count of any state, yet a below-average murder rate of 4.5 (FBI, 2024).
45LouisianaSouth519.8
519.8 per 100,000, plus the highest reported murder rate of any state at 10.8 per 100,000, more than double the national murder rate of 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Louisiana reported 519.8 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024 and the highest murder rate of any state at 10.8, more than double the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024). On the murder benchmark, the offense least distorted by reporting, it is the most lethal state in the country.
46ArkansasSouth579.4
579.4 per 100,000, roughly 61 percent above the national rate, with a murder rate of 7.3 (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: Arkansas reported 579.4 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, roughly 61 percent above the national rate, with a murder rate of 7.3 well above the national 5.0 (FBI, 2024).
47TennesseeSouth592.3
592.3 per 100,000, the highest rate in the South outside the two leaders and among the top murder-rate states with 7.9 per 100,000 (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Tennessee reported 592.3 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024 and a murder rate of 7.9, both among the worst in the South, driven substantially by Memphis (FBI, 2024).
48South DakotaMidwest362.3
362.3 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 4.7, both near national levels, ranking here after adjustment for reporting coverage rather than raw rate (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: South Dakota reported 362.3 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of 4.7 in 2024, both near the national figures (FBI, 2024).
49New MexicoSouthwest717.1
717.1 per 100,000, nearly double the national rate, with a murder rate of 10.5 per 100,000, second highest in the nation (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 2024).
The receipts: New Mexico reported 717.1 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, nearly double the national rate, and a murder rate of 10.5, the second highest of any state behind Louisiana (FBI, 2024).
50AlaskaMost dangerous by reported rate, Pacific724.1
The highest reported violent crime rate of any state at 724.1 per 100,000, more than seven times Maine's rate, with the nation's highest reported rape rate as a long-running component (FBI, 2024).
The receipts: Alaska reported the highest violent crime rate of any state at 724.1 per 100,000 in 2024, more than seven times Maine's 100.1, driven heavily by the nation's highest reported rape rate, though its murder rate of 6.9 ranks lower than several southern states (FBI, 2024).
Click any entry to open its full scorecard, sub-scores, and the receipts.
Highest reported violent crime rates, 2024
The 2024 numbers arrived with good news attached
Violent crime fell nationally in 2024 for the third consecutive year. The FBI's 2024 release showed declines in every major category, and the murder rate dropped to 5.0 per 100,000 after falling from 6.5 to 5.7 in 2023 (FBI, 2025; Center for American Progress, 2025). The 2023 data had already shown violent crime down 3.0 percent and murder down 11.6 percent year over year (FBI, 2024). The pandemic-era homicide spike has now been substantially unwound at the national level, a reversal that few forecasters predicted would come this fast.
The state spread, however, remains enormous. Alaska's reported rate of 724.1 per 100,000 is more than seven times Maine's 100.1. Louisiana's murder rate of 10.8 is nearly eleven times New Hampshire's 1.0. National trends are real, but safety is experienced locally, and the state table is where the differences live. A national average that improves says nothing about whether a given family's odds got better, because those odds are set by geography, not by the national line.
The good-news framing also comes with a measurement caveat that runs through this entire report. The FBI counts crimes that reach police files. The Bureau of Justice Statistics runs a separate National Crime Victimization Survey that asks people directly whether they were victimized, and it consistently finds that a large share of violent crime is never reported to police at all (BJS, 2024). When the reported numbers fall, part of that decline is genuine and part could reflect changes in how willing people are to call police. This ranking uses reported crime because it is the only offense-level data that exists for every state, but the reader should hold the whole table at the confidence level the source deserves, which is real but imperfect.
The full table, top to bottom
Ranking all 50 states in sequence exposes patterns that a top-ten and bottom-ten list hides. The safest tier is a tight northeastern cluster, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, all below 155 per 100,000, followed by a mountain and plains band of Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Idaho, and Iowa. The middle of the table is crowded with large, urbanized states, Ohio at 293.7, Illinois at 289.2, and Massachusetts at 314.7, whose statewide rates land near the national average even though their violence concentrates in a few metropolitan zip codes (FBI, 2024).
The dangerous tier is where the murder column and the violent crime column start to disagree. Alaska tops the reported violent crime table at 724.1, but its murder rate of 6.9 ranks behind Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Its number one ranking is driven overwhelmingly by the nation's highest reported rape rate, a category with real reporting and definitional complexity (FBI, 2024). Reading both columns together, rather than either alone, is the only honest way to use this data.
The sequence also breaks apart lazy regional stereotypes. Texas, often invoked in crime debates, lands at 389.4 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 5.2, both close to the national average, in the middle of the pack rather than near either extreme (FBI, 2024). Florida sits in the safer half at 267.1 after years of improving its once-partial agency reporting. Meanwhile several plains and mountain states carry surprisingly high violent crime rates driven almost entirely by aggravated assault, not homicide: Montana at 423.5 pairs a high violent crime rate with a murder rate of only 2.7, and Kansas at 438.7 has a below-average murder rate of 3.8. A single-number ranking flattens these distinctions, which is why every entry in this report carries both figures.
What counts as violent crime, and why it matters
The FBI's violent crime rate is not one number but four offenses summed together: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Aggravated assault is by far the largest component nationally, which means a state's overall violent crime rate is driven more by assault counts than by anything else. This is why states can rank very differently on the total rate than on the murder rate alone. Alaska's number-one ranking on total violent crime owes a great deal to the nation's highest reported rape rate, a category that carries genuine complexity in both reporting behavior and legal definition, which have shifted over the past fifteen years (FBI, 2024).
Robbery, by contrast, tends to concentrate in dense commercial and transit environments, which is part of why some urbanized states show elevated totals. Understanding the composition matters because a policy aimed at reducing homicide, a lethal-weapon and street-conflict problem, is different from one aimed at reducing aggravated assault or robbery. A ranking that reports only the summed total obscures which underlying problem a state actually has. This report leads with the total because it is the standard comparable measure across all 50 states, and it prints the murder rate alongside every entry precisely so the reader can separate lethal violence from the larger assault-driven total that dominates the headline figure.
The geography does not follow the political map
A reader looking for a partisan pattern will not find a clean one. The four safest states, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, are all in the blue Northeast. The next tier is dominated by red Wyoming, Kentucky, Utah, and Idaho. At the dangerous end, red Alaska, Tennessee, and Arkansas sit beside blue New Mexico, Colorado, and California. The Northeast as a region has the lowest violent crime and murder rates in the country, and the West carries a violent crime rate about 21 percent above the rest of the country (USAFacts, 2025; Brennan Center analysis of FBI data). Region predicts far better than party.
Only actions matter, and in this dataset the action is an offense reported to police. That standard treats a state governed by either party identically. If the resulting table flatters neither side's talking points, that is the table doing its job. The southern states with the highest murder rates and the northeastern states with the lowest span the full political spectrum among their governors and legislatures.
The Mississippi problem: when two federal datasets disagree
Mississippi ranks sixth safest in this table, at 210.5 reported violent crimes per 100,000. Readers should not take that at face value, and this report will not pretend otherwise. Its own FBI-reported murder rate of 7.4 is nearly 50 percent above the national average, and CDC mortality data, which count homicide deaths from death certificates rather than police reports, have repeatedly placed Mississippi at or near the top of the nation in homicide deaths per capita (CDC NCHS, Stats of the States). Death certificates cannot be unfiled. When the public-health count of bodies is high and the police count of violent offenses is low, the most likely explanation is incomplete crime reporting, not exceptional safety.
The same caution applies in softer form elsewhere. Alabama shows the identical signature: a reported violent crime rate right at the national average, but a murder rate of 8.7 among the highest in the nation. Agency participation in NIBRS collapsed in 2021 when the FBI retired the old summary system, and although coverage has recovered to include the vast majority of the population, states differ in how completely their agencies report. The ranking uses the official numbers because they are the only offense-level numbers that exist for all 50 states, and it flags the known weak spots by name.
Murder is the honest offense
Criminologists treat murder as the benchmark crime because it is almost always discovered, almost always reported, and defined the same way everywhere. On that benchmark, the 2024 leaders and laggards partly confirm and partly reshuffle the violent crime table: Louisiana highest at 10.8 per 100,000, New Mexico close behind at 10.5, with Alabama at 8.7 and Tennessee at 7.9 also near the top, while New Hampshire's 1.0 is the nation's lowest and Idaho and Hawaii sit at 1.6 (FBI, 2024; USAFacts, 2025).
The exceptions are the tell. Mississippi and Alabama rank far worse on murder than on overall reported violent crime, which is exactly the signature of undercounted non-fatal offenses. Alaska, Massachusetts, New York, and Montana show the opposite pattern: high reported violent crime rates paired with modest murder rates, meaning their totals are lifted by assaults and, in Alaska's case, rape, rather than by lethal violence. A state cannot hide a homicide the way an unreported assault disappears. Readers who want a single number least contaminated by paperwork differences should read the murder column first.
The murder column also reveals how far the pandemic recovery has traveled at the state level. The national murder rate of 5.0 in 2024 is close to its 2019 figure, but that national return masks divergent state paths. Some states that spiked hardest in 2020 and 2021 have come nearly all the way back down, while others remain elevated. The states that sit highest on murder in 2024, Louisiana at 10.8, New Mexico at 10.5, Alabama at 8.7, and Tennessee at 7.9, are the same states that led before the pandemic, which tells us the spike raised a persistent baseline rather than creating a new geography of lethal violence. Structural drivers, concentrated poverty, the density of firearms, and the strength of local violence-intervention infrastructure, changed slowly if at all, and the murder map moved with them (FBI, 2024; Center for American Progress, 2025).
Density does not equal danger
One of the most durable assumptions in American crime politics is that crowded, urban states are dangerous and rural states are safe. The 2024 table does not support it. New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the country, reported 217.7 violent crimes per 100,000 and a murder rate of just 2.3, placing it inside the safest ten (FBI, 2024). New York, anchored by the nation's largest city, reported a murder rate of 2.7, roughly half the national figure. Massachusetts, dominated by metropolitan Boston, posted a murder rate of 1.8, among the five lowest of any state.
The most dangerous states, by contrast, are often sparsely populated. Alaska, New Mexico, and Montana are among the least densely populated states in the union, yet all three carry violent crime rates well above the national average. The correlation that actually holds in the data is regional and economic, not a simple urban-rural or density gradient. Concentrated poverty, not concentrated population, tracks with violence, and it does so within cities and within rural counties alike. A ranking that reported density would tell a completely different and less accurate story than one that reports counted offenses.
Why a statewide average is a blunt instrument
Every number in this report is a statewide rate, and statewide rates conceal as much as they reveal. Violence in America concentrates in specific neighborhoods within specific cities. A statewide figure blends a high-violence urban core with vast low-violence suburban and rural expanses into one misleading average. Illinois ranks in the safer half of this table at 289.2 per 100,000, yet parts of Chicago carry rates many times that; Missouri's statewide 462.0 is driven substantially by St. Louis and Kansas City (FBI, 2024).
This is the deepest limitation of any state crime ranking, and it is why the report presents the data as an ordering rather than a verdict. A resident's actual exposure to violence depends on their county, their city, and often their block, none of which a state average captures. The ranking is useful for comparing the aggregate performance of state-level systems and for cutting through political rhetoric with counted offenses. It is not a guide to the safety of any particular address, and it does not pretend to be. The right way to read it is as a scoreboard of whole-state systems, checked against the murder column whenever a placement looks surprising, with the knowledge that the true unit of American violence is smaller than any state.
Lowest reported violent crime rates, 2024
How the crime map has moved since the pandemic spike
The story of American crime over the past five years is a spike and a recovery. Murder jumped roughly 30 percent in 2020, the largest single-year increase ever recorded, then held elevated through 2021 before turning down. The national murder rate fell from about 6.5 per 100,000 in 2022 to 5.7 in 2023 and to 5.0 in 2024, and violent crime declined in every major category in both 2023 and 2024 (FBI, 2024-2025; Center for American Progress, 2025). By 2024 the murder rate had returned close to its pre-pandemic level.
What did not change is the shape of the map. The Northeast held its position as the safest region throughout, and the highest-rate states in 2024, Alaska, New Mexico, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, were largely the same states that led before the pandemic. The spike raised the whole board and the recovery lowered it, but the relative ordering of states proved remarkably stable. A state that was dangerous in 2019 was dangerous in 2024, and a state that was safe stayed safe.
The clearest trend inside the data is the widening divergence between reported violent crime and murder in a handful of southern states. Mississippi and Alabama both rank far worse on murder than on overall reported violent crime, and that gap has persisted across years, not appeared in a single release. As NIBRS participation recovered from its 2021 collapse, the national reported-crime numbers became more comparable year to year, but the state-level reporting differences that make Mississippi look safer than its homicide data suggest have not closed (FBI, 2024; CDC NCHS).
Highest murder rates, 2024
Murder rate vs. the national rate of 5.0, 2024
What the evidence settles
The evidence settles that reported violent crime declined nationally in 2023 and again in 2024, that the murder rate fell to roughly 5.0 per 100,000, and that the spread between states is vast: Alaska and New Mexico report violent crime rates about seven times those of Maine and New Hampshire. It is also settled that the Northeast is the nation's safest region by both violent crime and murder rates, and that Louisiana had the highest murder rate of any state in 2024 at 10.8 per 100,000 (FBI, 2024-2025).
What remains contested
What remains legitimately contested is how much of any state's reported rate reflects true victimization versus reporting completeness. Victimization surveys show most violent crime never reaches police files, NIBRS participation still varies, and Mississippi's and Alabama's low reported rates sit beside murder and CDC homicide data pointing the other way. Reasonable people also dispute whether statewide rates mean much at all, since violence concentrates in specific neighborhoods; a state average can be driven by a handful of zip codes.
Questions people ask
What is the safest state in America?
Maine, by reported violent crime. Its 2024 rate of 100.1 offenses per 100,000 residents was the lowest in the nation, less than a third of the U.S. rate of 359.1 (FBI, 2024). New Hampshire had the lowest murder rate at 1.0 per 100,000, making it the safest state on the murder benchmark.
Which state has the highest violent crime rate?
Alaska, at 724.1 reported violent crimes per 100,000 in 2024, narrowly ahead of New Mexico at 717.1. Louisiana had the highest murder rate at 10.8 per 100,000, more than double the national figure (FBI, 2024).
Are these numbers reliable?
They are the official numbers, and they have known limits. They count crimes reported to police, agency participation varies by state, and in at least two cases, Mississippi and Alabama, low reported violent crime rates sit beside high murder rates and CDC homicide data pointing to more violence than police data show. This report flags those gaps rather than smoothing them over.
Is crime going up or down in the United States?
Down. The FBI reported declines in every major crime category in 2024, the murder rate fell to 5.0 per 100,000, and 2023 had already posted a 3.0 percent violent crime decline and an 11.6 percent murder decline (FBI, 2024-2025). The pandemic homicide spike has largely unwound.
Do red states or blue states have more crime?
Neither as a category. The four safest states are all in the blue Northeast, the next tier is dominated by red mountain states, and the most dangerous tier mixes red Alaska, Tennessee, and Arkansas with blue New Mexico, Colorado, and California. Region predicts crime far better than party (FBI, 2024; USAFacts, 2025).
Why is Mississippi ranked safe when it has a reputation for violence?
Its FBI-reported violent crime rate of 210.5 per 100,000 is low, but its murder rate of 7.4 is well above the national average and CDC death-certificate data place its homicide deaths among the nation's highest. The gap between the two is the classic signature of undercounted non-fatal offenses in police reporting, not genuine safety (FBI, 2024; CDC NCHS).
Sources
- FBI, Releases 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation Statistics, 2025 https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-reported-crimes-in-the-nation-statistics
- FBI Crime Data Explorer (state-level UCR/NIBRS data) https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/
- FBI, UCR Summary of Reported Crimes in the Nation, 2024 https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/resources/reports/UCR%20Summary%20of%20Reported%20Crimes%20in%20the%20Nation%202024.pdf
- FBI, Releases 2023 Crime in the Nation Statistics, 2024 https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2023-crime-in-the-nation-statistics
- Wikipedia, List of U.S. states and territories by violent crime rate (compiling FBI 2024 data) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_violent_crime_rate
- USAFacts, Which states have the highest and lowest crime rates? https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-least-and-most-crime/
- USAFacts, Which US states have the highest murder rates? https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-highest-murder-rates/
- CDC NCHS, Stats of the States: Homicide Mortality by State https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/homicide.html
- Brennan Center for Justice, U.S. Crime Rates and Trends: Analysis of FBI Crime Statistics https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/us-crime-rates-and-trends-analysis-fbi-crime-statistics
- Center for American Progress, Nationwide 2024 Crime Data, 2025 https://www.americanprogress.org/article/nationwide-2024-crime-data-demonstrate-the-value-of-violence-prevention-and-local-law-enforcement/
- Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/ckle24.pdf
- Statista, Reported violent crime rate in the U.S. 2024, by state https://www.statista.com/statistics/200445/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-us-states/
Parker, T. E. (2026). States Ranked by Violent Crime Rate. US Political Rank. https://uspoliticalrank.com/rankings/states-by-crime-rates<iframe src="https://uspoliticalrank.com/embed/states-by-crime-rates" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:8px" title="States Ranked by Violent Crime Rate" loading="lazy"></iframe>Keep reading
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