The Safest and Dangerous Cities in Tennessee
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August 21, 2025
Tennessee Security Solutions
The following is a list of cities that provide home security solutions in the state of Tennessee
Tennessee is the 15th most populous state out of 50 in the United States, and it has a crime rate 68 percent higher than the U.S. average.
Situated near the middle of the Appalachian Mountains in the Tennessee River valley, the Volunteer State unfortunately has one of the highest crime rates in the nation.
Despite the crime rate, Tennessee is well known around the world for its country music, hot chicken, whiskey and hospitality. Nashville is a global tourist destination and the bachelorette party capital of the American South.1
Tennessee cities with the highest and lowest crime rates
(per 100,000 people)
| Cities with the highest property crime rates | |
|---|---|
| Memphis | 8,602 |
| Berry Hill | 5,561 |
| Newport | 5,302 |
| Cities with the highest violent crime rates | |
|---|---|
| Memphis | 2,611 |
| Bolivar | 2,096 |
| Ripley | 1,707 |
| Cities with the lowest property crime rates | |
|---|---|
| Graysville | 66 |
| Dover | 110 |
| Rossville | 172 |
| Cities with the lowest violent crime rates | |
|---|---|
| Nolensville | 21 |
| Dover | 55 |
| Loretto | 55 |
Note: Excluding cities with crime rates of zero. Source: 2023 FBI Data
The most dangerous city in Tennessee, according to the most recent FBI crime data, is Memphis, with more than 2,600 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents.
Bolivar, a little town in west Tennessee with fewer than 6,000 people,2 has a violent crime rate of about 2,100 per 100,000, while Ripley is in third place with about 1,700 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
The safest cities in Tennessee for violent crime are Nolensville, with only 22 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 people; Dover, with 55; and Loretto, also with 55. Nolensville is a small, rural suburb just south of Nashville.
Sitting on the state’s western border with Arkansas is Memphis. The city has the state’s highest rate of property crime at over 8,600 per 100,000 residents. Berry Hill (about 5,560 per 100,000) and Newport (just over 5,300 per 100,000) round out the top three. The safest cities for property crime were Graysville (66 per 100,000), Dover (110) and Rossville (172).
Tennessee Crime Rates at a Glance
Overall, crime rates nationwide decreased in 2023. Tennessee’s crime rates, however, remain unusually high among its peers, and they grew markedly in 2023 while many states’ crime rates dropped. The state ranked No. 3 among all states in the most recent year of available federal data for its rate of both violent and property crimes.
Tennessee also has high rates of income inequality,3 tobacco use,4 and drug abuse.5 Those are factors with correlations to accidents, injuries, crime, and fatalities.
Violent crime rates
(per 100,000 residents)
| Crime Type | Tennessee | National |
|---|---|---|
| Murder/Non-negligent homicide | 9.9 | 5.7 |
| Aggravated assault | 509.3 | 263.7 |
| Robbery | 71.5 | 65.4 |
| Rape | 37.6 | 38.0 |
The state’s violent crime rate of 628 per 100,000 residents in 2023 was a staggering 73 percent higher than the national average. It also increased 1.1 percent in 2023 over the previous year’s reported incidents, while the national average markedly decreased.
Tennessee’s 2023 murder rate of 9.9 per 100,000 was about 74 percent above the national average. Tennessee’s 37.6 reported rapes for every 100,000 residents in 2023 was the only crime subset that registered below the national average, by 1.1 percent.
Robbery occurred at a rate of 71.5 per 100,000 and was 7.5 percent higher than the national average. The rate of aggravated assault was 71.5 for every 100,000 Tennesseans — a shocking 92.8 percent above the national average.
The most common violent crime in Tennessee in 2023 was aggravated assault. It occurred at a rate of over 500 per 100,000 residents — or one out of every 200 people living in Tennessee.
Property crime rates
(per 100,000 residents)
| Category | Tennessee | National |
|---|---|---|
| Burglary | 296.7 | 250.7 |
| Larceny | 1613.7 | 1343.9 |
| Vehicle theft | 451.4 | 317.2 |
At the same time, property crimes reported to the police in Tennessee topped 2,360 per 100,000. That was 23 percent higher than the nationwide average in 2023, and it represented a 2.6 percent year-over-year increase.
The most common property crime was larceny-theft, at more than 1,600 per 100,000 people, or nearly two out of every 100 residents. That was nearly 20 percent above the national average. Burglary across the state clocked in at just under 300 per 100,000 people — 18.3 percent higher than the national average. Vehicle theft topped 450 incidents per 100,000 residents, which was 41 percent above the national average.
Tennessee Statewide Crime Trends
The Volunteer State is one of the more populous U.S. states, ranking 15th by population. Furthermore, Tennessee ranks above the national average in income inequality. Criminal justice researchers have long noted a statistically significant correlation between income inequality and crime rates at the county, state, and international levels.
An Italian social scientist wrote about that phenomenon a century ago, building on the work of an American economist from Wisconsin who worked for the Census Bureau. Researchers in the social sciences call the metric the Gini coefficient.6
Researchers have found that poverty doesn’t correlate with crime so much as disparities in wealth and income levels within a geographic region.
Where Our Crime Data Comes From
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), and 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.
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Citations
- WHYY. (2024, Sept 17). The Nashville Bachelorette Party Industrial Complex.
https://www.whyy.org/episodes/the-nashville-bachelorette-party-industrial-complex/ - U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). QuickFacts: Bolivar city, Tennessee.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bolivarcitytennessee/PST040224 - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2024). Tennessee.
https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Tennessee.pdf - American Lung Association. (2024). Tobacco Trends Brief: Rates by State.
https://www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/tobacco-trends-brief/rates-by-state - Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. (2024). Drugs.
https://www.tn.gov/tbi/crime-issues/crime-issues/drugs.html - Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024). Statistics.
https://www.britannica.com/science/statistics/Numerical-measures