When you see small towns on TV and in movies, they’re almost always idyllic places where the American dream is thriving, neighbors, all know each other, and it’s so safe you don’t even have to lock your front door. In contrast, urban areas are often portrayed as dirty and overrun with people and crime. In reality, both small cities and large cities usually fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. While every place has its charms—both good and bad—we wanted to flip our preconceptions and look at the the most dangerous small cities where safety is a concern.
Our Methodology
To determine the most dangerous small cities that have the highest crime rates, we created a shortlist of cities with between 50,000 and 75,000 residents. After eliminating any places that didn’t have available crime data, we were left with a list of 234.
Using data from the FBI’s uniform crime report, we tallied the reported incidents of seven types of crime:
- Assault
- Burglary
- Motor vehicle theft
- Murder
- Rape
- Robbery
- Theft
We split these crimes into violent offenses and property crimes per 100,000 people, and then weighted the individual rankings for each type of crime (as well as total crimes) to create a final overall score.
Some patterns emerged. Florida accounted for the largest number of dangerous small towns with four. It was also interesting to note that all 10 of our worst offenders are either in the midwestern, mid-Atlantic, or southern regions of the country. So, do you have the dubious honor of living in one of these dangerous small towns?
Wilmington, DE
Amongst the most dangerous small cities, Wilmington is on the larger end of our range with a population of just over 70,000. Despite the efforts of local authorities, which have included placing the city’s entire downtown area under CCTV surveillance and other aggressive tactics, crime continues to be a serious problem in Wilmington. It topped the list in terms of violent crime with 1,632 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
Wilmington didn’t fare much better in other areas. The murder rate was almost seven times higher than the national rate and total crime (7,382 per 100,000) was almost three times higher than the national rate. With a reported 112 shootings in 2019, Wilmington has begun to get incrementally safer, but it still has a long way to go before it can be considered a safe place to live.
Canton, OH
While Ohio isn’t typically notorious for its crime rate, the state does have its fair share of rough areas. The city of Canton, with a little over 70,000 residents, is one of them. Approximately 50 miles outside of Cleveland, this city ranked second out of all the cities on our shortlist in property crimes and total crimes.
There are 5,379 property crimes and 6,578 total crimes per 100,000 residents. Thefts led the list of property crimes with 3,572 for every 100,000 residents. Although Canton wasn’t as bad when it came to violent crimes, it still had triple the amount of robbery, rape, and assault than the national rate.
Rocky Mount, NC
Remember how we mentioned that every state has its rough spots? North Carolina< is no exception with towns like Cary, which are exceedingly safe, as well as towns like Rocky Mount, which are decidedly less so. Although this city of about 54,000 has seen improvements in safety (the violent crime rate dropped from 1,039 per 100,000 residents in 2012 to 824 in 2020), its violent crime rate is still more than double the rest of the state. Rocky Mount also has more than double the rate of burglaries and assaults than the nation.
North Little Rock, AR
Just across the Arkansas River from Little Rock proper, North Little Rock is only about 30 percent as large as its namesake but has more per capita crime. This city’s 4,206 per 100,000 resident crime rate makes it almost twice as high as the nation, but only slightly higher than the rest of the state.
Fortunately, a vast majority of the town’s crimes are not violent—494 violent crimes versus 2,287 property crimes. However, with the town’s high crime rate, it’s no wonder the North Little Rock Police Department has implemented drones as a crime control tactic.
Jackson, TN
Named for native Tennessean and America’s seventh President, Andrew Jackson, this city of nearly 67,000 in Madison County has the dubious distinction of having over three times the amount of violent crimes per 100,000 people than the national rate. Located 70 miles east of Memphis, one of the most dangerous big cities in America, Jackson is also known for being home to one of Tennessee’s three Supreme Court courthouses.
But being close to the law hasn’t deterred crime in Jackson. Its total crime rate of 5,293 per 100,000 residents makes it a little safer than comparably sized Canton and Wilmington, but not by much.
Pensacola, FL
Pensacola joins Daytona Beach as one of the four cities in Florida that we are highlighting for its high incidence of crime. It also happens to be the smallest town with approximately 53,000 residents. Although Pensacola has managed to lower its violent crime rate (it had 13 homicides in 2012, but managed to drop to zero for the first time since 1990 in 2017), it has almost twice the property crime rate than the rest of the nation.
Lauderhill, FL
Located just west of Fort Lauderdale, the city of Lauderhill with 72,000 residents has a total crime rate of 4,010 per 100,000 people. It has double the murder, robbery, and assault rate of the rest of the nation, but its property crime rate is mostly on par with the rest of the state. The worst property crime culprit is theft at 2,322 per 100,000.
Homestead, FL
Just south of Miami, Homestead, FL, has a violent crime rate of 1,019 per 100,000 residents making it one of the worst on our list. Still, this town of 70,000 has a relatively low incident of murder and rape. The majority of its violent crimes are attributed to assault and robbery—both more than double the national rate.
Property crimes, particularly theft, accounted for most of the crimes in Homestead with a rate of 3,259 property crimes per 100,000 residents. Overall, Homestead has made some strides to improve, with its total crime rate dropping from 5,911 per 100,000 in 2012 to 4,278 now.
Daytona Beach, FL
Probably best known outside Florida for NASCAR’s annual Daytona 500 race, Daytona Beach is fittingly on the higher end of the scale when it comes to motor vehicle thefts—and property crime as a whole. In fact, the city has more than double the property crime rate of America with 4,891 property crimes per 100,000 people and 6,002 total crimes per 100,000.
Unfortunately, after seeing a steady decline in homicides, Daytona Beach recorded one of its worst years for murder in 2019 with 15 homicides and its assault rate is still alarmingly high at 942 per 100,000 residents.
Warner Robins, GA
Home to Robins Air Force Base, Warner Robins primarily carved out a spot on the list of dangerous small cities because of its disproportionately high rate of property crime, It has the lowest overall violent crime rank of any of the towns we mentioned here, but it makes up for it when it comes to property crime. The city of 75,000 has a total crime rate of 6,127 per 100,000 but only 586 of that is from violent crimes.
While violent crimes aren’t a major issue — although it does have a higher than average incidence of rape — property crimes, especially theft, are almost triple the national rate.
