New York: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Statewide Crime Trends in New York

While New York ranks in the top third of all states for its overall violent crime rate, that rate is only about 13 percent higher than the overall national rate, and the state's property crime rate is lower than the overall U.S. rate. However, in some cases, New York has higher crime rates than neighboring states.

Property Crime in New York

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

• New York’s total property crime rate per 100,000 people is 1,722, which is slightly under the overall U.S. rate of 1,954 per 100,000 people.
• New York ranks 29th among the 50 states for property crime, though it does have the highest property crime rate in the Northeast.
• New York has the seventh-lowest rate of motor vehicle theft.
• Larceny continues to be the most common property crime in New York (as it is everywhere else in the country), with about 1,422 incidents per 100,000 people.

Violent Crime in New York

Violent crimes include murder/nonnegligent homicide, aggravated assault, rape and robbery.

• New York’s overall violent crime rate is 429 incidents per 100,000 people — about 13 percent higher than the overall U.S. rate.
• New York ranks 14th among the 50 states for violent crime but first in the Northeast.
• New York has the nation’s third-highest robbery rate and sixth-lowest rape rate.

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.