Crime affects communities in many ways, from medical expenses and property losses to criminal justice spending and lost productivity. Using the latest city-level crime data reported to the FBI and academic research on what different types of crime cost society, MoneyGeek estimated the annual cost of crime in 2026 dollars for cities across the country. We ranked 315 cities with populations over 100,000 by the cost of crime per resident and identified both the safest and most dangerous places in America. Cities are listed by city and state to avoid confusion where multiple places share the same name, such as Columbus, Georgia, and Columbus, Ohio.
This year's analysis includes better FBI crime data coverage. Cities excluded from earlier editions due to incomplete reporting now appear in the rankings, expanding the study's scope beyond previous years.




