Memphis, Tennessee leads many lists as the most dangerous large city in the U.S. based on violent crime rates, with other top-10 contenders typically including St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cleveland, Kansas City, Birmingham, Oakland, and Minneapolis in various rankings. Rankings vary depending on whether the metric emphasizes violent crime rate per capita, overall crime rate, or homicide rate, and on the time window used. What the latest compilations commonly show
- Violent crime per capita: Memphis and St. Louis frequently appear at the top, followed by cities like Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Kansas City [sources vary by year and methodology].
- Homicide-focused rankings: New Orleans, Memphis, and St. Louis often rank highly for murder rates per 100,000 residents, with other cities like Detroit and Baltimore close behind in different datasets [sources vary by year and methodology].
- Geographic spread: The cities tend to cluster in the Southeast and Midwest, with several entries in the Rust Belt and urban cores, reflecting structural factors such as poverty, unemployment, housing instability, and policing challenges.
Important notes
- Exact order and which cities appear in the top 10 can differ by data source (FBI UCR, city crime reports, third-party aggregators) and by whether the measure is violent crime rate, homicide rate, or total crime index.
- For current, precise top-10 lists, it helps to specify the exact metric (e.g., violent crimes per 100,000, homicide rate per 100,000) and the year or data source you want to use.
If you’d like, I can pull the latest specific top-10 lists from reputable sources (e.g., FBI UCR, U.S. News rankings, or major crime-tracking outlets) and present a clear side-by-side table with the chosen metric and year.
