According to a map published by Visual Capitalist using FBI figures covering March 2025 through February 2026, a new ranking has successfully scored every state on violent crime per 100,000 residents. The nation’s two major tools for measuring crime, the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) measures crime data across states. Their combined data shows long-term trends for rates of serious violent crime, motor vehicle theft, and burglary.
WHICH STATES HAVE THE HIGHEST VIOLENT CRIME RATE?
Washington, D.C., sits at the top with 789 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. The figure is partly elevated because the district is entirely urban, unlike states that also include suburbs and rural areas. Among the 50 states, Alaska leads at 731, and the rate is driven largely by rape and aggravated assault. New Mexico is next at 645, the highest in the contiguous United States, followed by Arkansas (533), Tennessee (482), Kansas (465) and Louisiana (461). The numbers cover murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, drawn from the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
WHICH STATES HAVE THE LOWEST CRIME RATES?
Maine reports the lowest violent crime rate in the country at 92 per 100,000, followed by Connecticut (108), New Hampshire (121) and Rhode Island (143). New Jersey (194) and Virginia (201) also land near the bottom. A few results break the geographic pattern. Wyoming (189) and Hawaii (190) both post rates lower than New Jersey despite sitting nowhere near the Northeast. Illinois is the bigger shock. Home to the city Americans instinctively associate with crime, Illinois ranks 31st among the 50 states at 250, below Florida (252) and Massachusetts (267).
IS CRIME GETTING WORSE?
No. The FBI released its full 2025 crime report on Aug. 14, showing that violent crime was down 9.3% from the year before, the largest single-year decline since national estimates began in 1936. The murder rate fell 18.1% to 4.1 per 100,000, matching the rates in 1955 and 1956 for the lowest ever recorded. Property crime dropped 12.4%, and motor vehicle theft fell 22.7%.
Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.
