Michigan: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime
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July 24, 2024
Several of Michigan’s largest cities have higher-than-average violent crime rates, including Battle Creek, Muskegon, and Niles. Each of these places rank in the top 15 among metro areas for the rate of rapes.
Battle Creek, for example, has the third highest rate of rape among metro areas and ranks 16th for aggravated assault and 15th for violent crime overall. It’s also among the top 50 metro areas for burglary. Muskegon and Niles also rank in the top 10 for rape, while the Kalamazoo-Portage metro area ranks among the top 100 for each crime type we analyzed.
Michigan metro area crime rates per 100,000 people (rank among 300+ metro areas)
| Metro area | Violent crime (overall) | Murder/non-negligent manslaughter | Rape | Robbery | Aggravated assault | Property crime (overall) | Burglary | Larceny-theft | Motor vehicle theft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ann Arbor | 409 (121st) | 3 (209th) | 52 (104th) | 31 (189th) | 323 (105th) | 1,514 (227th) | 190 (245th) | 1,191 (214th) | 133 (236th) |
| Battle Creek | 769 (15th) | 8 (87th) | 113 (3rd) | 34 (179th) | 615 (16th) | 2,603 (62nd) | 479 (41st) | 1,937 (53rd) | 187 (173rd) |
| Bay City | 289 (204th) | 3 (227th) | 59 (76th) | 14 (271st) | 214 (195th) | 943 (299th) | 130 (288th) | 728 (296th) | 85 (277th) |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn | 529 (64th) | 10 (45th) | 46 (147th) | 52 (99th) | 421 (59th) | 1,668 (205th) | 222 (212th) | 1,054 (240th) | 392 (43rd) |
| Flint | 615 (39th) | 13 (28th) | 72 (34th) | 28 (208th) | 503 (29th) | 1,398 (248th) | 245 (184th) | 954 (262nd) | 199 (160th) |
| Grand Rapids-Kentwood | 399 (127th) | 4 (200th) | 83 (19th) | 38 (155th) | 275 (143rd) | 1,556 (221st) | 160 (268th) | 1,128 (224th) | 268 (102nd) |
| Jackson | 436 (97th) | 4 (186th) | 84 (17th) | 23 (234th) | 325 (104th) | 1,884 (175th) | 269 (164th) | 1,410 (166th) | 206 (152nd) |
| Kalamazoo-Portage | 700 (22nd) | 8 (64th) | 79 (25th) | 71 (59th) | 542 (24th) | 3,176 (23rd) | 443 (53rd) | 2,354 (18th) | 379 (47th) |
| Lansing-East Lansing | 467 (84th) | 4 (200th) | 70 (39th) | 39 (149th) | 354 (82nd) | 1,588 (214th) | 231 (201st) | 1,128 (225th) | 229 (133rd) |
| Midland | 123 (302nd) | 2 (247th) | 56 (82nd) | 0 (314th) | 65 (306th) | 647 (313th) | 83 (309th) | 530 (312th) | 35 (311th) |
| Muskegon | 444 (92nd) | 8 (79th) | 92 (12th) | 30 (199th) | 314 (110th) | 2,004 (141st) | 231 (201st) | 1,603 (118th) | 170 (193rd) |
| Niles | 577 (46th) | 9 (55th) | 96 (11th) | 34 (173rd) | 437 (49th) | 1,928 (165th) | 279 (154th) | 1,385 (172nd) | 264 (103rd) |
| Saginaw | 763 (16th) | 16 (16th) | 68 (50th) | 38 (159th) | 642 (14th) | 1,341 (254th) | 267 (166th) | 925 (270th) | 150 (221st) |
Among specific cities, Benton Harbor had Michigan’s highest overall violent crime rate, and the city of about 9,000 has the sixth-highest violent crime rate among the 7,000-plus communities with FBI-reported data. Other Michigan cities are near the top of that list as well, including the city-proper areas of Saginaw (21st) and Detroit (27th).
In some cases, high crime rates may reflect specific challenges communities have, such as poverty or lack of opportunity. In other cases, they could be statistical anomalies. For example, Mattawan, Michigan, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the state. But does that mean Mattawan is unsafe? It could mean that the village of less than 2,000 people appears to have a high crime rate due to its low population.
Similarly, South Haven, a town of about 3,500 on Lake Michigan, is a major tourist destination, boasting a pre-COVID-19 economic impact of more than $100 million.1 It also has the state’s highest property crime rate.
Statewide Crime Trends in Michigan
While some states are in the enviable position of having low rates of both major types of crimes (violent and property), Michigan cannot be counted among them. While Michigan’s property crime rate is over 20 percent lower than the overall U.S. rate, its violent crime rate is one of the highest in the country. Michigan’s violent crime rate is about 20 percent higher than the national rate.
Property Crime in Michigan
When determining property crime rates in Michigan, we looked at larceny theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft incidents.
- The total overall property crime rate in Michigan is 1,537 per 100,000 people, 21 points lower than the overall U.S. property crime rate of 1,954 per 100,000. And Michigan ranks 38th among the 50 states in terms of property crime.
- Michigan ranks 10th out of the 12 Midwestern states for its property crime rate; only Wisconsin and Iowa have lower rates in the region.
- Larceny continues to be the most common property crime in Michigan, as it is everywhere else in the country, with about 1,055 incidents per 100,000 people:
Violent Crime in Michigan
Violent crimes include murder/non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery. While they are, fortunately, less common than property crimes, Michigan does have higher-than-average rates of violent crimes.
- The overall violent crime rate in Michigan is 461 per 100,000 people, 21 points higher than the overall national rate of 381 per 100,000.
- Michigan ranks 10th among the 50 states for violent crimes and has the second-highest overall violent crime rate in the Midwest.
- The biggest reason for Michigan’s place near the top of the list for violent crimes is its high rape rate. Only two states in the U.S. — Alaska and Arkansas — have higher rape rates than Michigan, which also has a higher-than-average rate of aggravated assault, which overall is the most common type of violent crime in the U.S.
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.
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Citations
- WSJM. (2022). Tourism Remains Big For The South Haven Area.
https://www.wsjm.com/2022/08/30/tourism-remains-big-for-the-south-haven-area/