Violent crime rates by state vary enormously across the United States, with the highest-ranked state recording more than seven times the rate of the lowest. In 2024, Alaska topped the list at 724 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, while Maine reported just 100 per 100,000. The national average sat near 359 per 100,000, and overall violent crime has been falling sharply since its 2020–2021 peak.1USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest and Lowest Crime Rates
States With the Highest Violent Crime Rates
All figures below are per 100,000 residents, which is the standard way to compare states fairly. Raw totals would make populous states look worse than they are on a per-person basis.
Alaska led the nation in 2024 at 724 per 100,000. Geographic isolation is part of the story. Many rural communities sit hours from the nearest law enforcement office, and sexual assault rates in Alaska run consistently above the national average.1USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest and Lowest Crime Rates
New Mexico ranked just behind at 717 per 100,000, with aggravated assault accounting for most of its violent crime volume. Louisiana came in fifth at 520 per 100,000, down from above 630 a few years earlier, though its homicide rate remains among the highest in the country.2USAFacts. What Is the Crime Rate in Louisiana High-rate states often receive targeted federal grants and specialized task forces, and the declining national trend has offered some relief.
States With the Lowest Violent Crime Rates
Maine has held the bottom spot for years, recording 100 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2024. The rest of the five safest states in 2024:
- New Hampshire: 110 per 100,000
- Connecticut: 136 per 100,000
- Rhode Island: 154 per 100,000
- Wyoming: 203 per 100,000
Several of these states report single-digit homicide totals in a given year.1USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest and Lowest Crime Rates
New Jersey also stands out at 218 per 100,000, notable given its population density.3USAFacts. What Is the Crime Rate in New Jersey Density alone doesn’t predict high crime. The safest states tend to share higher median incomes, lower poverty rates, and above-average educational attainment. Research has found that lower high school graduation rates correlate with higher violent crime, though education alone explains only part of the picture.
Regional Patterns
Individual state rankings can obscure patterns that regional data reveals. The most recent FBI regional breakdown shows the West at 414 violent crimes per 100,000 residents and the South at 407, making the West slightly higher per capita. Because the South has a much larger total population, it reports the highest raw volume of incidents. The Midwest falls in between at about 362 per 100,000, and the Northeast consistently reports the lowest at roughly 292.4Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the US 2019 – Region
Within every region, the gap between major cities and rural areas can be enormous. Seasonal patterns also play a role. Violent crime rises with temperature, and warm-weather months produce noticeably higher incident counts than winter, a pattern that disproportionately affects hotter southern and western states.
What Counts as Violent Crime
The rates above measure a specific set of offenses. For national statistics, the FBI tracks four crimes under the Uniform Crime Reporting Program: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.5Federal Bureau of Investigation. Violent Crime
Murder covers the intentional killing of one person by another, excluding accidental deaths and justifiable homicides. Rape includes any penetration without consent. Robbery means taking something of value through force or threats. Aggravated assault is an attack intended to cause serious bodily harm.6Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the US 2019 – Offense Definitions Every state reports these four categories to the FBI, which is what makes cross-state comparison possible.
Federal law separately defines a “crime of violence” more broadly as any offense involving the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against a person or property.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 16 – Crime of Violence Defined That definition governs sentencing and immigration consequences but isn’t what drives the state-level statistics.
A Note on Comparing Years
On January 1, 2021, the FBI began transitioning from its old Summary Reporting System to the National Incident-Based Reporting System. The old system counted only the most serious offense in an incident; the new one records every offense along with details like victim-offender relationships, time of day, and weapon type.8Federal Bureau of Investigation. National Incident-Based Reporting System
The switch alone raised the calculated national crime rate by about 2.1 percent, with no change in actual criminal behavior. In 2021, roughly 40 percent of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies failed to submit crime statistics to the FBI, compared to near-universal participation the year before.9Congressional Research Service. The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) – Benefits and Issues By 2023, participation had recovered to about 85 percent of agencies covering 94.3 percent of the population, and by 2025 more than 15,000 agencies were reporting through NIBRS.10Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Releases Historic Early Look at Annual Crime Data Recent data is reliable; 2021 and early 2022 figures should be treated with caution.
Where the National Trend Is Heading
National violent crime fell an estimated 4.5 percent in 2024 compared to 2023. Murder dropped 14.9 percent, robbery fell 8.9 percent, rape decreased 5.2 percent, and aggravated assault declined 3.0 percent.11Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Releases 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation Statistics A nearly 15 percent drop in murder in a single year is striking by any historical standard.
Preliminary FBI data for 2025 suggests the decline is accelerating. Early figures show murder down another 18.5 percent, robbery down 19.4 percent, and aggravated assault down 7.5 percent compared to 2024.12Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime Data Explorer Violent crime overall in 2025 appears to be at or below 2019 levels. Some researchers project the national homicide rate may drop to around 4.0 per 100,000 residents when final 2025 data is released, which would be the lowest recorded rate since 1900.13Council on Criminal Justice. Crime Trends in US Cities – Year-End 2025 Update
The decline has been broad. Across 40 large American cities, homicide rates dropped in 2025. Reported carjackings fell 61 percent from 2023, gun assaults dropped 22 percent, and residential burglaries declined 17 percent. No single factor explains the turnaround, and criminologists continue to debate the relative contributions of policing strategies, economic recovery, and the fading of pandemic-era disruptions. Whichever state you live in, the odds are that the rate today is lower than it was three years ago.