We used science and data to let you know which cities have a ‘yuge’ crime problem.

This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out we updated it for 2020.

No one wants to believe that they live in a dangerous city. But the fact of the matter is that your city may not be as safe as the city next door.

But instead of running and hiding under the covers, it’s better to get informed — which cities in America should you pay a little more attention to your surroundings as you walk home from work?

What is the most dangerous city in America? It turns out that, based on the most recent FBI Crime data, Memphis, TN has attained the throne of the city with the highest crime rate. It ranked as the most dangerous city in America for 2020 based on the data.

This our sixth time ranking the most dangerous cities in America.

You might be thinking to yourself at this point — where’s Chicago?? Isn’t that some kind of post-apocalyptic, world war 3 type city?

Well, it actually ranks as the 62nd most dangerous with a pretty normal overall crime rate.

And while these places are some of the most dangerous in America, you have to remember America is a safe place to live relative to the rest of the world. Be glad you don’t live in Caracas, Venezuela where the murder rate is 2x higher than any US City (Here’s looking at you Memphis).

Read on to learn more about our methodology or skip to the end for a full chart of the data with the crime rate for each city.

Or for more reading on places across America check out:

Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In America

How We Determined The Most Dangerous Cities In America for 2020

Every year the FBI release two crime datasets, a preliminary dataset limited to the biggest cities in the country, followed by a more detailed release at the end of the year.

For our analysis, we focused on the second release of 2019 data, specifically the 2018 Uniform Crime Report.

So what criteria did we use? Have a look:

Violent Crimes Per Capita

Property Crimes Per Capita

We ranked each city from 1 to 214 for the two criteria with 1 being the most dangerous score. We then averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.

Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in the country — Memphis. Read on for a bit more on why these cities have such high crime rates.

Or check out the safest cities in America.

Population: 652,226

Rank Last Year: 1

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,943 (2nd most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 6,405 (4th most dangerous)

Memphis is the largest city in the top ten, coming in with a population a cool 100K larger than Albuquerque. And now has displaced St. Louis to become the most dangerous city in America for 2020.

What else is larger in Memphis than Albuquerque? That would be the violent crime rate, which ranks as the second highest in America. That also implies the property crime isn’t as bad as some of the other cities ‘featured’ here.

Review Of Memphis by by HomeSnacks User The crime is very bad. Most people here don’t have a life. Beale Street is okay. Watch some of the people around here though. Review Where You Live

Population: 210,564

Rank Last Year: –

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,911 (3rd most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 6,313 (5th most dangerous)

Birmingham reported data for the first time year and you can see why they were reluctant to in the past — it ended up being the second most dangerous city in the country this year.

It had top five finishes for both violent and property crimes per capita, but violent crimes were the main problem. Birmingham had the third most violent crimes per capita in the country among big cities.

Review Of Birmingham by by HomeSnacks User This place is very racist and not good at all its like a ghost town. Its very racist and not a good place to live. Review Where You Live

Population: 199,288

Rank Last Year: 3

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,446 (8th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 6,547 (3rd most dangerous)

Little Rock rocks a little too hard when it comes to crime. It ranks in the top ten in the country for both property crime and violent crimes per capita.

That’s a bit of a nasty combination when it comes to being dangerous and nets Little Rock at the almost top of our ranking.

Population: 306,875

Rank Last Year: 2

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,800 (5th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 5,911 (9th most dangerous)

Home to a specific type of BBQ (grilled) and a specific type of crime (violent), St. Louis ranks as the fourth most dangerous in our analysis of dangerous cities.

While it might not win as many honors for its BBQ, St. Louis takes homes the distinction of having the fifth highest violent crime rank among all big cities in America. It’s one of the dots way out to the top in the graph higher on the page.

So when you cross the street in The Gateway City, in addition to looking both ways for cars, you might want to look both ways for murder, or at least aggravated assault.

Review Of St. Louis by by HomeSnacks User Being in a new place is so different,everything is different but the people are great. I got tot meet some really good people along the way. Of course the Arch stands out more than anything else in St. Louis. There is no bad side to it at all Review Where You Live

Population: 168,537

Rank Last Year: 4

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,316 (14th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 7,019 (2nd most dangerous)

Homer would be sad to hear that Springfield (in this case Missouri) ranks as one of the more dangerous cities in America.

The issue is property crime — Springfield ranks as having the worst property crime per capita of any city in the country. It didn’t end up taking the #1 overall most dangerous spot because its violent crime ranks outside of the top 10.

Review Of Springfield by by HomeSnacks User The police here pat their selfs on the back every time crime drops 1%. R**e, drug crimes, death by car wrecks is common. Homeless are shipped here from KC. The city council has issues with the north side of town. Very little money is spent there but the south side of town money is poured into it. The mayor lives on the south side. Lots of good Restaurants to eat at. Sams is good Lots of small family run businesses. Small towns around Springfield are great to visit. And Flea markets abound Review Where You Live

Population: 560,235

Rank Last Year: 5

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,364 (12th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 6,179 (6th most dangerous)

We’re sure Walter White wouldn’t be surprised to see Albuquerque on the list. Although, its ranking is due more to property crimes than violent crimes.

The second largest city in the top ten has the fifth highest property crime rate.

So just make sure to keep a close eye on your product… err, property.

Review Of Albuquerque by by HomeSnacks User ABQ is the worst. A deplorable place. People have a chip on their shoulder in Albuquerque because they have to live where they do. Its a city with an identity crisis… people want to pretend that its a big city, but its really just a sprawled out shithole, with not real options for entertainment. Downtown is a joke. The university is a joke. The whole place is better when seen from I-40 or I-25 in your rear view mirror. The schools are some of the wors in the country. Nepotism is rampant in city government. City is ran terribly. City departments are all cousinsdrug problem is more on an epidemic scale than any place Ive ever been. Just an all around terrible place. Review Where You Live

Source: Public domain

Population: 391,726

Rank Last Year: 13

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,179 (18th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 5,618 (11th most dangerous)

Wichita couldn’t keep itself out of the top ten this year as it slid six positions from 13th last year.

The problem in the city is property crime for which it ranks 11th highest in the country. The reason it slid down so much is actually because most of the cities ranked 5-10 are actually way safer than last year. The rates of crime have all moved down, so now it’s more of mixed bag in the second half of the ranking.

Review Of Wichita by by HomeSnacks User I like Wichita because it’s got the small town feel with most of the city amenities and culture. The cost of living is very affordable. A family can easily afford a house from the income they make from the aircraft industry. The bad side is that it could be a bit boring. On the bright side, Vietnamese food is really good here. Review Where You Live

Population: 430,230

Rank Last Year: 6

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,273 (16th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 5,390 (16th most dangerous)

While people continue to migrate from San Francisco to Oakland to avoid insane property prices, they aren’t moving to avoid crime. Oakland ranks over thirty spots higher than San Francisco on the crime ranking.

So there’s that stat Oakland has over San Francisco, at least for now.

Drilling down into the statistics, Oakland has the 11th highest violent crime rank in the country and the fourteenth highest property crime rate. That gives it a firm placement in the top right dangerous quadrant of the graph above.

Review Of Oakland by by HomeSnacks User To everybody thinking about moving to Oakland : Its dreadful, horrible chaos. Please just stay where you are. Actually, Oakland s a wonderful place to live. We just dont need any more people here. Really. Bad: weather. Bad: diverse, fun population. Youve been warned. Lol Review Where You Live

Population: 180,397

Rank Last Year: 7

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,048 (25th most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 6,058 (8th most dangerous)

The second city from Tennessee on the list is Chattanooga. The less famous version of Nashville and Memphis, Chattanooga holds its own in property crime where it ranks 10th worst in the country.

At least violent crime isn’t awful in the city.

Review Of Chattanooga by by HomeSnacks User I love Chattanooga Tennessee. It’s such a amazing City. There’s so much to do and great places to eat. We love the Tennessee Aquarium. The city has a small-town feel. We enjoyed riding the transportation system in downtown. One of my favorite places to eat was sticky fingers barbecue. Unbelievably good food. When we go to Chattanooga I we stay in the Sheridan Hotel. It is a great place to stay. Chattanooga is just a beautiful city. It is so close to the mountains. Awesome river bear by. A lot of attractions in the city. Lookout mountain is not too far off. Rock city is near by. Lots of hiking and camping nearby. It’s a great place to visit. Review Where You Live

Population: 403,147

Rank Last Year: 14

Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,065 (23rd most dangerous)

Property Crimes Per 100k: 5,430 (15th most dangerous)

Rounding out the top ten most dangerous cities in America is Tulsa, OK.

Tulsa ranked 14th last year, but moved down as some of the cities above it got ever so slightly safer. Compared to the tenth most dangerous city last year, Anchorage, AK, Tulsa is actually pretty safe. While both stats were in the top 20% most dangerous, neither was anything to write home about.

The city is kind of just solidly above average when it comes to crime rates based on the most recent crime data.

Review Of Tulsa by by HomeSnacks User Tulsa, OK is home to many, including my parents. The crime in Tulsa is absolutely horrible, and it seems to be ran down very much. There are fun places to visit if you are into water parks or gambling at a Casino. I can’t get past the area though. It gives me an uneasy feeling, along with dread. It has a lot of litter and homeless people. It really needs help. You definetly have to watch out for the tolls. They are everywhere, and if you’re not from around there you can easily miss a turn and have to go back through the same toll. The workers at the toll show no mercy either. One time I had went to a toll and told them I was lost. They told me to go down to the next exit and turn around and come back through. So, I paid to go through the toll, turned around, and then went back to the toll and they charged me again. Not only are there tolls EVERYWHERE but there is ALWAYS construction going on and the roads there are absolutely terrible. So, the money you pay in tolls seems to not really go into the roads. Over the 20 years of me going there and visiting my family I have known it to always have crappy roads and construction going on but no workers in sight. Review Where You Live

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The final returns from the FBI’s 2018 data set show that Memphis ranks as the most dangerous city in America for 2020.

However, there will be a new data set coming out early this year. At that point we can revisit Memphis’s status — that is if they haven’t beaten us all up already.

Here’s a look at the safest cities in America according to the data:

Cary Port St. Lucie Irvine

For more reading on the dangerous side check out:

Most Dangerous Cities In America For 2020

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