Most Dangerous Cities: The Latest Rankings for the 50 Largest U.S. Cities

The FBI released 2025 crime figures in August, showing national crime rates continuing to cool: Between 2024 and 2025, the national violent crime rate fell 9.7 percent, and the property crime rate fell 12.8 percent.

The trend is even sharper over the last decade: since 2015, the national property crime rate has dropped by 37.9 percent and the violent crime rate by 14.3 percent. Though this is excellent news for the U.S. as a whole, crime rates vary widely by city. Some of the nation’s largest cities still have soaring crime rates that residents should be aware of.

To identify which regions have the highest crime levels, we analyzed the latest FBI reports and ranked the 50 most populous cities nationwide by their crime rates.

Total Crime: Memphis Ranks Highest Among Biggest Cities

The total crime rate combines violent crime (such as murder, robbery, and assault) with property crime (such as burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft). In 2025, the national total crime rate was 1,862.4 per 100,000 residents, down from 2,119 per 100,000 residents in 2024.

Cities with highest total crime rate (per 100,000), 2025

Memphis, Tennessee again stands out with total crime nearly three-and-two-thirds times the U.S. average, followed closely by Oakland. Notably, five of the 50 largest U.S. cities (Mesa, El Paso, Virginia Beach, Honolulu, and Tampa) have total crime rates well below the national average. These five cities also had the lowest total crime rates among the nation’s biggest cities.

Violent Crime: Memphis, Detroit, and Oakland Have the Nation’s Highest Rates

Violent crime includes serious offenses such as homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. In 2025, the national violent crime rate was 327.6 per 100,000 residents, the lowest in 20 years.

Cities with highest violent crime rates (per 100,000), 2025

Memphis again tops the list for violent crime, with a rate more than five-and-a-half times the national figure. Detroit and Oakland also post rates well above triple the U.S. average.

The Trump administration enacted federal crime crackdowns in 2025–2026 in several of the cities listed above. For example, Memphis received the most direct action: a National Guard deployment and the federally-backed “Memphis Safe Task Force,” supported by Tennessee’s Republican leadership and credited with thousands of arrests by early 2026.

Additionally, National Guard troops were put on standby for deployment to Portland, but a federal judge permanently blocked their deployment in 2025. Baltimore and Oakland were also considered as potential targets for federal intervention, but troops and task forces were not deployed.

Property Crime: Oakland, Portland, and Memphis Lead

Property crimes like burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft account for the majority of crime in most cities. In 2025, the national property crime rate was 1,534.8 per 100,000 residents, down from 1,760 per 100,000 residents in 2024.

Cities with highest property crime rate (per 100,000), 2025

Oakland leads the list for property crime this year, edging out Portland, and its total is disproportionately driven by motor vehicle theft. Oakland’s vehicle theft rate (1,447.9 incidents per 100,000 people) is the highest among the 50 largest U.S. cities, ahead of Kansas City, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis.

Vehicle theft accounts for roughly 27.7 percent of all property crime in Oakland, more than double the 12.8 percent share nationally. Burglary and larceny-theft, by comparison, make up a smaller share of Oakland’s property crime than in many peer cities.

Methodology

For this report, we relied on data from the 2025 Crime in the United States report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. City-level insights were found in Table 8 – Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, by State and City. National year-over-year and 10-year trend figures were found in Table 1 – Crime in the United States by Volume and Rate per 100,000 Inhabitants, 2006–2025.

We ranked the 50 largest U.S. cities (city proper) by three metrics: total crime rate (violent + property crimes), violent crime rate, and property crime rate. Rates are normalized per 100,000 residents. Populations are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1, 2025. Several entries reflect the primary police jurisdiction name, which we simplified to reflect the city name (e.g., Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department). Offense groupings follow FBI definitions (violent = murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault; property = burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft).

The FBI also provides data by metropolitan statistical areas, but we wanted to use the most granular data possible, so we opted for cities proper. Reporting completeness can vary; year-to-year shifts may reflect reporting changes as well as real change.

Data appendix

Crime rates in the top 50 largest U.S. cities, 2025