Special Report

Lubbock, TX Is Among the Most Dangerous US Metro Areas

Samuel Stebbins

Published: November 8, 2021 12:01 pm

Last Updated: November 9, 2021 8:41 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.

Six of the 50 U.S. metro areas with highest violent crime rates are located in Texas. Of those, Lubbock ranks as the most dangerous. Nearly 3,000 violent crimes were reported in the metro area in 2020, or 919 for every 100,000 people.

Lubbuck’s violent crime rate climbed by nearly 10% last year. The increase was led by a 182% surge in homicides, from 11 in 2019 to 31 in 2020. As a result, the local homicide rate of 9.5 incidents per 100,000 people is now well above the 6.5 per 100,000 national rate, while in 2019, the metro area’s homicide rate of 3.4 per 100,000 was far below the national rate of 5.1 per 100,000 that year. Local officials connect the surge in deadly violence to drug use, firearms, and domestic violence.

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.