Crime Rate in Chicago

Unfortunately one of the things Chicago is most known for is its crime rate. Clearly Chicago has a problem with violent crime but it is also important to keep it in perspective. Chicago is more dangerous than cities like Tokyo or Stockholm but is also safer than cities like New Orleans or St. Louis. If we look at the 12 largest cities in the Midwest Chicago does not look great but some cities in the Midwest have even a much higher murder rate than Chicago. Rate is per 100,000 inhabitants per year.

City	Population	Murders in 2017	Rate
Saint Louis	310,284	205	66.1
Detroit	670,792	267	39.8
Kansas City	484,948	150	30.9
Cleveland	385,351	107	27.8
Chicago	2,706,171	653	24.1
Cincinnati	298,116	70	23.5
Milwaukee	595,168	118	19.8
Indianapolis	870,788	156	17.9
Columbus	872,205	142	16.3
Minneapolis	418,971	42	10.0
Wichita	391,084	35	8.9
Omaha	449,388	31	6.9

Perhaps the biggest misconception with Chicago is that murders happen all over the city. In fact most murders only happen in a few neighborhoods. If we separate out Chicago into the 77 official Community Areas and look at the murder rate you will see most communities have an average murder rate but a minority of communities have rates that are quite high. For a reference I have included the rates of El Salvador (rate = 61.80), the country with the highest murder rate, the United States (rate=5.30), and Japan (rate=0.20), a country with a very low rate. Please note I also included Iraq (rate=9.85). Contrary to what you may see on the news most Muslim countries have a lower murder rate. Notice some community areas in Chicago even exceed the rate in El Salvador!

Source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/widgets/53tx-phyr - rates are yearly average for dates 1/1/2010-10/31/2019. Population is based on 2010 census.

Below you can see the rate in each community based on time span 1/1/2010-10/31/2019. Surprisingly perhaps Edison Park has a rate of 0.0 because they have not had a murder since 2002. Columns are sortable by clicking on column headers.

Community #	Name	Population	# of Murders	Rate
1	ROGERS PARK	54991	45	8.2
2	WEST RIDGE	71942	35	4.9
3	UPTOWN	56362	48	8.6
4	LINCOLN SQUARE	39493	8	2.0
5	NORTH CENTER	31867	2	0.6
6	LAKE VIEW	94368	11	1.1
7	LINCOLN PARK	64116	6	0.9
8	NEAR NORTH SIDE	80484	41	5.1
9	EDISON PARK	11187	0	0.0
10	NORWOOD PARK	37023	4	1.0
11	JEFFERSON PARK	25448	8	3.2
12	FOREST GLEN	18508	1	0.5
13	NORTH PARK	17931	6	3.4
14	ALBANY PARK	51542	28	5.5
15	PORTAGE PARK	64124	20	3.2
16	IRVING PARK	53359	28	5.3
17	DUNNING	41932	14	3.4
18	MONTCLARE	13426	5	3.8
19	BELMONT CRAGIN	78743	67	8.6
20	HERMOSA	25010	21	8.4
21	AVONDALE	39262	24	6.2
22	LOGAN SQUARE	73595	43	5.9
23	HUMBOLDT PARK	56323	230	41.5
24	WEST TOWN	81432	59	7.3
25	AUSTIN	98514	478	49.3
26	WEST GARFIELD PARK	18001	183	103.3
27	EAST GARFIELD PARK	20567	154	76.1
28	NEAR WEST SIDE	54881	99	18.3
29	NORTH LAWNDALE	35912	234	66.2
30	SOUTH LAWNDALE	79288	120	15.4
31	LOWER WEST SIDE	35769	48	13.6
32	LOOP	29283	12	4.1
33	NEAR SOUTH SIDE	21390	12	5.7
34	ARMOUR SQUARE	13391	11	8.3
35	DOUGLAS	18238	26	14.4
36	OAKLAND	5918	13	22.3
37	FULLER PARK	2876	21	74.2
38	GRAND BOULEVARD	21929	82	37.9
39	KENWOOD	17841	21	11.9
40	WASHINGTON PARK	11717	86	74.5
41	HYDE PARK	25681	14	5.5
42	WOODLAWN	25983	108	42.2
43	SOUTH SHORE	49767	208	42.4
44	CHATHAM	31028	153	50.1
45	AVALON PARK	10185	33	32.9
46	SOUTH CHICAGO	31198	138	44.9
47	BURNSIDE	2916	13	45.3
48	CALUMET HEIGHTS	13812	18	13.2
49	ROSELAND	44619	216	49.2
50	PULLMAN	7325	15	20.7
51	SOUTH DEERING	15109	40	26.8
52	EAST SIDE	23042	21	9.3
53	WEST PULLMAN	29651	126	43.1
54	RIVERDALE	6482	44	68.9
55	HEGEWISCH	9426	5	5.4
56	GARFIELD RIDGE	34513	20	5.8
57	ARCHER HEIGHTS	13393	12	9.1
58	BRIGHTON PARK	45368	74	16.6
59	MCKINLEY PARK	15612	19	12.3
60	BRIDGEPORT	31977	21	6.6
61	NEW CITY	44377	177	40.5
62	WEST ELSDON	18109	17	9.5
63	GAGE PARK	39894	78	19.8
64	CLEARING	23139	6	2.5
65	WEST LAWN	33355	16	4.8
66	CHICAGO LAWN	55628	171	31.2
67	WEST ENGLEWOOD	35505	247	70.7
68	ENGLEWOOD	30654	251	83.2
69	GREATER GRAND CROSSING	32602	186	58.0
70	ASHBURN	41081	54	13.3
71	AUBURN GRESHAM	48743	193	40.2
72	BEVERLY	20034	5	2.4
73	WASHINGTON HEIGHTS	26493	80	30.6
74	MOUNT GREENWOOD	19093	1	0.5
75	MORGAN PARK	22544	52	23.4
76	OHARE	12756	4	3.2
77	EDGEWATER	56521	24	4.3

Update: Replaced graph so it is more readable on mobile devices