Kentucky: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Kentucky is certainly no stranger to crime, but a look at the most recent FBI data shows that the Bluegrass State stands out for a good reason: Kentucky’s property and violent crime rates are both among the lowest in the South and the U.S. as a whole.

When it comes to property crimes such as auto theft and burglary, Kentucky’s rate is more than 25 percent lower than the overall U.S. rate. For violent crime, the difference is even better — Kentucky’s rate is more than 40 percent lower than the national rate.

What types of crimes are most common in Kentucky, and where are they most likely to take place?

Property Crime in Kentucky

When determining property crime rates in Kentucky, we looked at larceny/theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft incidents.

The total overall property crime rate in Kentucky is 1,449 per 100,000, which is 26 percent lower than the U.S. rate of 1,954 per 100,000. The state ranks 41st.
In addition to ranking in the bottom quarter of all states for property crimes, Kentucky has the second-lowest rate in the South, ahead of West Virginia.
The most common type of property crime in Kentucky, and the rest of the country, is larceny, which occurs at a rate of 990 per 100,000 in Kentucky. That’s the seventh-lowest rate among all states.

Violent Crime in Kentucky

Violent crimes include murder/non-negligent homicide, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery. Fortunately, they are much less common than property crimes.

The overall violent crime rate in Kentucky is 214 per 100,000 people, an impressive 44 percent lower than the overall U.S. rate of 381 per 100,000.
Kentucky ranks 44th among all states. Within the South region, it has the lowest violent crime rate.
Aggravated assault, which occurs at a rate of 135 per 100,000 people in Kentucky, is the most common type of violent crime in the state.

Crime in Kentucky Metros and Cities

A local analysis of crime data in Kentucky largely reinforces the state-level findings, with one important caveat: Data was not available for the Louisville metro area, which is home to more than 1.3 million people, half of whom reside in Kentucky. Among Kentucky metro areas with available data, none rank among the top 50 metro areas for either property or violent crimes or any particular type of crime.

Kentucky metro area crime rates per 100,000 people (rank among over 300 metro areas)

Metro area	Violent crime (overall)	Murder/non-negligent homicide	Rape	Robbery	Aggravated assault	Property crime (overall)	Burglary	Larceny/theft	Motor vehicle theft
Bowling Green	156 (290th)	3 (215th)	44 (157th)	34 (176th)	74 (301st)	1,962 (157th)	274 (158th)	1,483 (143rd)	206 (152nd)
Elizabethtown-Fort Knox	89 (312th)	3 (239th)	22 (292nd)	17 (259th)	48 (312th)	749 (311th)	163 (263rd)	464 (313th)	122 (247th)
Lexington-Fayette	212 (258th)	7 (98th)	45 (155th)	48 (114th)	112 (282nd)	2,306 (93rd)	313 (121st)	1,701 (87th)	292 (87th)
Owensboro	199 (270th)	3 (239th)	46 (149th)	35 (170th)	117 (276th)	1,973 (151st)	276 (156th)	1,438 (157th)	259 (105th)

Kentucky’s metro areas do not have above-average crime rates compared to other metro areas, but some communities in the state stand out for unfortunate reasons.

Fulton has the third-highest property crime rate among all Kentucky communities with available data. Once known as the “banana capital of the world” due to how many units of fruit were shipped through the city, Fulton’s property crime rate is 4,776 per 100,000. The city’s eye-popping property crime number, however, is certainly affected by its small permanent population of about 2,300.

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.