Florida: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Property Crime in Florida

When determining property crime rates in Florida, we considered larceny, theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft incidents:

• Florida’s total property crime rate is 1,566 per 100,000 people, which is nearly 400 points below the overall U.S. rate of 1,954 per 100,000.
• The state ranks 36th for property crime, five positions better than neighboring Georgia.
• Larceny continues to be the most common property crime in Florida as it is everywhere else in the country, with about 1,255 incidents per 100,000 people:

Violent Crime in Florida

Violent crimes include murder/non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, rape and robbery, and, thankfully, they’re much less common than property crimes in Florida and all other states:

• Florida has the 38th-highest violent crime rate in the country, more than a hundred points lower than the overall U.S. rate.
• Aggravated assault is the most common type of violent crime in Florida, occurring at a rate that’s more than five times higher than robbery.

Crime in Florida Cities

As we’ve already touched on, many Florida law enforcement agencies did not submit their 2022 crime data to the FBI. However, the data that is available indicates that many Florida cities had statistically high crime rates.

Several South Florida cities led the state in both property and violent crime. Miami Beach, a major tourist destination known for its beautiful beaches, luxurious resorts and lively club scene, led the state in property crime. Of course, its crime rates are much lower today than they were in the 1970s and 1980s when violence and drug trafficking surged. About 78 miles north of Miami Beach lies Mangonia Park, the town with the highest violent crime rate and second-highest property crime rate.

Belle Glade, located about 50 miles west of Mangonia Park, had the second-highest violent crime rate in the state. This community, known for sugar cane farming and its NFL athletes, is located on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. Unfortunately, the high crime rate in the area stems from decades of systemic injustices inflicted upon the town, resulting in environmental issues, poverty, and mass incarceration.

Indian River Shores had the lowest violent crime rates and the third-lowest property crime rates among cities with available data in the state. Located just north of Vero Beach, this community on Orchid Island has just 4,000 full-time residents. Combined with its small size, many communities in Indian River Shores are gated, making property and violent crimes that much more difficult to commit.

Our Data

Our data comes from comprehensive reporting compiled by the FBI and accessed via the Crime Data Explorer website. Property and violent crime state figures were drawn from Table 5 of the 2022 Crime in the U.S. Report. Metropolitan figures were found in Table 6, Crime in the U.S. by Metropolitan Statistical Area. City-level figures were drawn from Table 8, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement by State by City. The population figures in that table are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1, 2020.

Limitations: According to the FBI, the data in the publication tables may differ from those released on the Explorer Pages of the CDE. These variations are due to the difference in methodologies between the publication tables and data displayed on the CDE. Please note that crime statistics are not the sole measure of a city’s safety. Limited data for 2022 were available for Florida, Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.