Why Compare City Crime Rates?
Whether you're planning a move, evaluating job offers in different cities, or simply curious about how your hometown stacks up, comparing crime rates side by side gives you the clearest picture. Our comparison tool lets you weigh violent crime, property crime, and overall safety scores for any two cities in our database — all on one page.
All crime rates are normalized to per 100,000 residents, which means you can fairly compare a city of 50,000 people with one of 500,000. Raw crime counts can be misleading — a larger city will naturally have more incidents — so per-capita rates are the standard used by the FBI and criminologists alike.
Every number on this site comes from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the same dataset used by researchers, journalists, and policymakers. Our data covers thousands of cities with populations of 10,000 or more, giving you government-verified statistics rather than estimates or crowd-sourced reports.
Popular Comparisons
How to Read a City Crime Comparison
Each comparison page breaks crime into two major categories: violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson). You'll see rates per 100,000 residents for each category, along with a side-by-side percentage difference so you can instantly spot which city is safer in each area.
The Safety Score (1–100) provides a single-number summary. A score of 50 equals the national average, scores above 50 are safer than average, and scores approaching 100 indicate very low crime. This score is calculated by comparing each city's combined crime rate against the national rate, so it accounts for both violent and property crime in one metric.
Where available, you'll also see multi-year trend charts showing whether crime is rising or falling in each city. Trends matter — a city with a slightly higher current rate but a strong downward trend may be a better bet than one with a low rate that's climbing. Look at the full picture before drawing conclusions.
About the Comparisons Above
The popular comparisons above feature major US cities with populations over 100,000. Among these featured cities, crime rates range from 2,082 per 100K in San Diego, CA to 5,783 per 100K in Seattle, WA — a 2.8x difference that underscores how much safety can vary between major metro areas.
These aren't the only comparisons available. Our database includes 3,000+ cities across all 50 states, so you can compare any two cities using the search tool above. Whether you're looking at suburbs, mid-size cities, or major metros, the data comes from the same FBI source and uses the same per-capita methodology.
Looking for other ways to explore? Check out our safest cities rankings, browse crime statistics by state, or go directly to any city page for a full breakdown of crime types, trends, and safety scores.
Frequently Asked Questions
What data source do the comparisons use?
All comparisons use data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. This is the same dataset used by federal agencies, academic researchers, and news organizations. We only include cities with populations of 10,000 or more that report complete data to the FBI.
Can I compare cities from different states?
Yes. Because all crime rates are normalized to per 100,000 residents, you can compare any two cities regardless of state or population size. The per-capita methodology ensures an apples-to-apples comparison whether you're looking at a mid-size city of 50,000 or a major metro of over one million.
What is the Safety Score and how is it calculated?
The Safety Score rates each city on a scale of 1 to 100. A score of 50 represents the national average crime rate. Scores above 50 indicate below-average crime (safer), while scores below 50 indicate above-average crime. The score is computed by comparing each city's combined crime rate against the national rate using the formula: score = 100 - (city_rate / national_rate x 50), clamped between 1 and 100.