The Most—And Least—Dangerous States, Mapped

The crime rate can be an important factor to consider when you're thinking about where you want to live or work. But just how safe is a particular state?

The good news is that crime is going down overall in the United States, with 359 violent crimes per 100,000 people. That's a decline from 380 crimes a year earlier and 390 crimes in 2023, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But information compiled from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer shows that the crime rate can vary greatly from state to state.

Here are the worst—and best—states when it comes to measuring the violent crime rate for crimes like murder, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault per 100,000 people.

The Capital Is the Capital of Crime

Washington, D.C., has the highest violent crime rate for crimes committed from March 2025 to February 2026, according to FBI data. The district saw 789 violent crimes committed per 100,000 residents. One reason for this high crime rate is the nature of the nation's capital. Washington, D.C. is an entirely urban jurisdiction compared to states that have urban, suburban, and rural areas.

Second-place Alaska has a crime rate of 731 crimes committed per 100,000 people. The state has higher rates of rape and aggravated assault, pushing its overall crime rate higher compared to other states.

Southern states are also represented in the top 10 states with high crime rates, with New Mexico coming in third place with 645 crimes per 100,000 residents.

Other states landed in the top 10 overall most dangerous states because of the rate of specific crimes in their cities. Louisiana, for example, made the top 10 most dangerous states because of New Orleans, which has the highest murder rate in the country with 46 homicides per 100,000 people. Memphis, Tennessee, has the second-highest murder rate with 41 homicides per 100,000 people. Nashville also makes the country's top-20 cities based on the murder rate with 15 murders per 100,000 people.

Another state that has two cities with high murder rates is Missouri. St. Louis has a murder rate of 38 homicides, and Kansas City has a rate of 25 murders per 100,000 residents. That puts both cities in the top 10 cities for the highest murder rates in the country.

The top 10 most dangerous states include:

Northeast States Are the Safest

New England is a good place to be if you want to be safe from violent crime. Four of the top 10 safest states are in the Northeast, with a fifth—Vermont—coming in as the 11th safest state.

Maine leads the list with only 92 violent crimes per 100,000 people, making it the only state with a crime rate under 100 crimes. Second-place Connecticut has 108 violent crimes per 100,000 people, while third-place New Hampshire has a crime rate of 121 crimes.

One factor may be urban centers that are more likely to have higher crime rates. States like Tennessee, Missouri, California, and New York—which all made the top 15 for highest crime rate by state—have multiple cities that have high murder rates. On the other hand, no major city in New England made the list for top-40 cities with the highest murder rates in the U.S. There were only 22 homicides reported in Boston in 2024, for example, which was the lowest number for the city at the time since 1957.

The top 10 safest states based on crime rate per 100,000 people include:

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