Why Grand Rapids, Michigan is More Dangerous Than Most U.S. Cities

Cities across the United States have been reporting a spike in gun violence and homicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first six months of 2020, there was a nearly 15% increase in murders nationwide, and across a sample of 59 cities tracked by the FBI, the number of murders was up 28% from January through July compared to the same period in 2019, according to The New York Times.

The increase reflects a sudden reversal of a longer-term trend, as violent crime has fallen in the U.S. for four consecutive years. There were 367 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 people in the United States in 2019, a low not seen since 2014 and a far cry from the highs of the early 1990s, when rates topped 750 violent crimes per 100,000 people annually.

Violent crime is a broad category of offenses comprising four sub categories: murder, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, violent crime is far more common than it is nationwide. In 2019, the most recent year of available data, there were a total of 1,286 violent crimes reported in the city — or 637 for every 100,000 people. Click here to see the full crime report for Grand Rapids.

The FBI tracked violent crime in 4,548 U.S. cities with populations of at least 5,000 in 2019, and 98% of those cities reported at least one violent crime that year. Of the 4,473 cities to report one or more incidents of violence, Grand Rapids ranks No. 451 by violent crime rate, which ranks it in the top 25% most violent U.S. cities.

Just as violent crime is more common in Grand Rapids than it is nationwide, violent crime is also more common in Michigan than it is nationwide. There were a total of 43,686 violent crimes reported in Michigan in 2019, or 437 for every 100,000 people. Of all 50 states, Michigan has the 13th highest violent crime rate.

The violent crime rate in Grand Rapids ranks as No. 35 of the 220 cities in Michigan that are home to at least 5,000 people for which the FBI has data.

Across the United States, aggravated assault is the most common form of violent crime. Of the 1.2 million violent crimes committed in the U.S. in 2019, about 66% were incidents of aggravated assault. In Grand Rapids, aggravated assault accounted for 67% of all reported violent crimes in 2019.

Of the four types of violent crime, murder ranks the highest on the FBI’s hierarchy of crime severity. Grand Rapids, a city of about 201,800 residents, there were 8 murders committed in 2019, or 4 for every 100,000 people. The national murder rate stands at five incidents for every 100,000 people.

The relationship between economic distress and crime in a given area is not direct. However, lower-income areas often report higher than average crime rates. There are exceptions to this pattern however, and though the violent crime rate is considerably higher than the national average in Grand Rapids, the poverty rate is not. An estimated 15.0% of Grand Rapids residents live below the poverty line, closely in line with the 14.1% U.S. poverty rate.

Violent offenses are just one component of crime in an area. To provide a more comprehensive view of overall crime levels across the country, 24/7 Wall St. recently published extensive crime reports with data visualizations for over 4,000 cities and all 50 states. Click here to see the complete crime report for Grand Rapids here.