Monroe, LA Is Among the Most Dangerous US Metro Areas

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.

Five of the 50 U.S. metro areas with highest violent crime rates are located in Louisiana. Of those, Monroe ranks as the most dangerous. More than 2,600 violent crimes were reported in the metro area in 2020, or 1,309 for every 100,000 people — more than three times the U.S. violent crime rate. The near nation-leading levels of violence in the city are partially the result of a crime surge that drove the violent crime rate up by 61% from 2019 to 2020.

The city police chief attributes the rise to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to a rise in drug activity and use of illegal firearms.

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.