The Safest and Most Dangerous Cities in Kansas

Violent Crime

The tiny town of Elwood is statistically Kansas’ most violent city, logging more than 1,600 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Some may blame next-door Missouri for that elevated crime rate, as Elwood sits just across the border and outside the Kansas City metroplex. Nestled within a bend of the Missouri River, the town has flooded three times in the past 32 years,⁶ stunting local economic development. With a small population of just over 1,100, even a handful of crimes can escalate the town’s per capita rate.

Wichita is Kansas’ largest city and its second most violent town. Once tamed by lawman Wyatt Earp,⁷ this aviation center — it’s known as the air capital of the world — now has a soaring violent crime rate with a sky-high 1,132 offenses per 100,000 people. Kansas’ third most violent city is its capital, Topeka. The town’s name means “good place to dig potatoes” in the indigenous Kansa-Osage tongue,⁸ but until its violent crime rate drops from 966 incidents per 100,000 people, it may be better suited for raising tubers than families.

The Nordic enclave of Lindsborg is the state’s safest city, suffering only 26 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The town is known as Little Sweden⁹ because of the local Swedish diaspora, and it mirrors that nation’s tranquility as one of the safest places on Earth.¹⁰ Hugoton is Kansas’ second safest city, with 55 crimes per 100,000 residents. The town was named after French author Victor Hugo, but its low crime rate makes it anything but miserable. Third safest is Andover (56 crimes per 100,000), an affluent Wichita suburb named the best city to raise a family in Kansas.¹¹

Property Crime

Fredonia features the highest property crime rate in the state, registering nearly 6,700 offenses per 100,000 citizens. A former boomtown in Kansas’ southeast corner, Fredonia more recently has suffered setbacks after exhausting its fossil fuel reserves, shuttering its concrete factory¹² and seeing its Archer Daniels Midland processing plant close.¹³

With concentrated commercial corridors and a high population density near a major urban area (Kansas City), Merriam fits the dictionary definition of optimal spot for property crime. Its nearly 5,900 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants is Kansas’ second highest rate.

Far more hospitable for a home on the range are the cities with Kansas’ lowest property crime rates. Ulysses faces no odyssey with property crime, suffering only 54 offenses per 100,000 people. That’s the lowest property crime rate in Kansas, although in the 1990s Ulysses considered secession that would have made it the capital of West Kansas!¹⁴ The aforementioned Little Sweden of Lindsborg has the second lowest property crime rate (18 per 100,000), securing its reputation as an all-around safe town. The third lowest property crime rate is found in Council Grove, a prominent stop on the Santa Fe trail founded by Daniel Boone’s great-grandson.

Statewide Crime Trends in Kansas

Kansas contains the nation’s geographic center (Smith County), but it isn’t so middling regarding crime. It’s positioned among the highest third for both property and violent offenses. The Jayhawk State has the 12th highest violent crime rate and 14th highest property crime frequency. Those numbers mark Kansas as more dangerous than its neighbor Nebraska, safer than Colorado or Missouri, and roughly equal to adjoining Oklahoma.

Violent Crime Rates in Kansas

(per 100,000 residents)

Despite its bucolic nature, Kansas is no stranger to violent crime or notorious criminals. As the location of the haunting Clutter family murder, made famous in “In Cold Blood,” and home to Bonnie and Clyde, the Dalton Gang, and the BTK killer, the farming state has harvested its share of bloodshed. Overall, Kansans experience violent crimes at the rate of 430 acts per 100,000 citizens. That’s 18 percent above the national rate and a rise of 3.6 percent over the previous year. The state’s murder rate (4.6 per 100,000) is 19 percent below the American average, and its per capita robberies (31.3 per 100,000) are 53 percent under national numbers. Still, incidents of rape (44.3 per 100,000) are 17 percent higher than nationwide standards, and aggravated assaults (350 per 100,000) outpaced the rest of the country by a third.

Property Crime Rates in Kansas

(per 100,000 residents)

A geological study once famously declared that Kansas was topographically as flat as a pancake.¹⁵ The same cannot be said of its property crime numbers, which jumped 5.1 percent to nearly 2,100 per 100,000 residents. That number is nine percent above national figures. Vehicle theft rates in Kansas (240 per 100,000) are 25 percent below American benchmarks, but burglaries and larcenies are well above countrywide norms. The burglary rate is 293 per 100,000, exceeding broader U.S. figures by 17 percent. Larceny theft occurs in Kansas with a frequency of more than 1,560 crimes per 100,000 residents, 16 percent beyond the national baseline.

About Our Crime Numbers

Unless specified otherwise, the information in this article is based on crime data compiled by the FBI and made available through the Crime Data Explorer. Statewide violent and property crime statistics are drawn from the FBI’s 2023 Crime in the United States Report (Table 5). For city-level crime rates, we referred to Table 8, which lists reported offenses by state and city.

Important note: Crime statistics offer valuable insights, but they aren’t the only way to evaluate a community’s safety. Local context, law enforcement practices and reporting standards can all influence how crime is recorded. Additionally, FBI publication tables and the data displayed on the Crime Data Explorer may differ slightly due to variations in methodology.