Special Report

Corpus Christi, TX Is Among the Most Dangerous US Metro Areas

Samuel Stebbins

Published: November 8, 2021 12:01 pm

Last Updated: November 9, 2021 8:42 am

The U.S. violent crime rate — an annual, population-adjusted measure of cases of rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and homicide — climbed by 5% in 2020. The increase was driven by a rise in aggravated assault and, most notably, a historic 29% surge in homicides that made 2020 the deadliest year in the United States since the mid-1990s.

Despite the largest single-year increase in homicides on record, the overall violent crime rate in 2020 remains relatively low by historical standards. There were 1.3 million violent crimes reported in the U.S. in 2020, or 399 for every 100,000 people. For context, the violent crime rate ranged between 523 and 758 incidents per 100,000 throughout the 1990s.

Of course, crime is a local phenomenon influenced by a wide range of factors. As a result, violent crime rates in the U.S. can vary considerably from place to place — and in some metro areas, rates of violence far exceed the nation-level highs recorded in decades past.

In a break from the national trend, the violent crime rate in the Corpus Christi, Texas, metro area did not change meaningfully in 2020. Still, the metro area remains among the most dangerous in the country, with 738 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 people in 2020. The city also reported a 22.9% increase in homicides, from 35 in 2019 to 43 in 2020.

A spokesman for the Corpus Christi Police Department has said that in order to lower crime rates, law enforcement is applying for federal grants and is hiring more officers. Local officers are also engaged in community outreach to improve relations with city residents.

Metro areas are ranked on their violent crime rate using data from the FBI’s 2020 Uniform Crime Report. Additional data on specific crimes are also from the 2020 FBI UCR. Poverty rates are one-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey.