The states with the least violent crime

Understanding the states with the least violent crime

Across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, violent crime per 100k spans from 93.2 in Maine at the top of the list to 803.0 in the District of Columbia at the bottom. The three at the top are Maine, Connecticut, and New Hampshire; the three at the bottom are New Mexico, Alaska, and the District of Columbia.

Maine had the lowest violent crime rate in the country in 2025, about 93 offenses per 100,000 residents, followed by Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Wyoming. At the other end, the District of Columbia recorded about 803 per 100,000, and Alaska, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana all exceeded 500. The national rate was about 328.

Violent crime fell nearly everywhere over the past five years. Compared with 2020, a pandemic year with an unusual rise in murders and assaults, the 2025 rate was lower everywhere except Kansas, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Property crime does not always follow the same pattern: Oregon has the fourth-highest property crime rate in the country but a violent crime rate below the national average.

These are FBI estimates for each state's entire population, which fill in for police agencies that did not report every month, so they compare fairly across states. They still describe a whole state. Crime is concentrated in particular cities and neighborhoods, so a state's rate says little about the risk on a specific street. Each state profile shows how much of its estimate rests on reported data.