Florida's crime rate
There were 542,116 crimes reported in Florida in 2019, the most recent year crime data is available. Adjusted for population, Florida's crime rate is 2,524 crimes per 100,000 residents.
How does Florida compare?
Crime is about as common in Florida as it is nationwide. By comparison, the national crime rate of 2,489 per 100,000 people is just 1% lower. Of the 50 states, 23 have a higher crime rate than Florida.
Crime rates nationwide range from 1,361 per 100,000 in Maine to 3,945 per 100,000 in New Mexico, the states with the lowest and highest crime rates, respectively.
Here are the crime rates for all 50 states.
What types of crimes are being committed?
The FBI's crime rate includes seven crime categories: three property crimes -- larceny, burglary, and motor vehicle theft, and four violent crimes -- aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder.
Property crime
The vast majority of crimes in America are property crimes, accounting for 85% of total crimes in 2019. This share was roughly the same in Florida, with property crimes accounting for 85% of all crimes reported in the state.
There were 460,846 property crimes reported in Florida in 2019, or 2,146 per 100,000 residents. This is roughly the same as the national rate of 2,110 property crimes per 100,000 people and is the 25th highest rate of the 50 states.
Larceny
Larceny is by far the most common type of property crime. The 5,086,096 reported incidents nationwide in 2019 accounted for 73% of all property crime. Florida's rate of 1,669 reported larceny incidents per 100,000 residents is higher than the nationwide rate of 1,550 per 100,000 and is the 21st highest among states.
Burglary
An estimated 63,396 break-ins were reported in Florida in 2019, or 295 per 100,000 state residents -- the 21st lowest rate among states. For reference, there were an estimated 1,117,696 break-ins nationwide, or 341 break-ins per 100,000 people.
Motor vehicle theft
Across the U.S., there were 721,885 reported motor vehicle thefts in 2019, a rate of 220 per 100,000 people. Florida's rate of 182 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents was lower than this national rate and the 21st lowest rate compared to all states.
Violent crime
Violent crimes make up a small share of crimes nationwide. In Florida, violent crimes account for 15% of total crimes, versus 15% nationwide.
While Florida has the 27th lowest total crime rate of all states, it has the 29th lowest violent crime rate. The state’s violent crime rate of 378 per 100,000 people is on par with the national rate of 379 per 100,000. There were 81,270 violent crimes reported to Florida law enforcement agencies in 2019.
Aggravated assault
Aggravated assault is by far the most common type of violent crime. Nationwide, there were 821,182 aggravated assaults in 2019, accounting for 66% of violent crimes across the country. In Florida, 55,475 aggravated assaults were reported in 2019. Florida's rate of aggravated assault of 258 per 100,000 people is slightly higher than the national rate of 250 per 100,000 and is the 21st highest of all states.
Robbery
Robbery is the second most common type of violent crime in America. There were 16,217 robberies reported in Florida in 2019, or 76 robberies for every 100,000 residents. This is slightly lower than the national rate of 82 robberies per 100,000 people, and the 19th highest robbery rate among states.
Rape
There were 8,456 reported rapes in 2019 in Florida. The state's rate of rape of 39.4 per 100,000 residents is slightly lower than the national rate of 42.6 per 100,000 people. Florida has the 18th lowest rate of rape.
Murder
In 2019, there were 1122 murders reported to law enforcement in Florida. The state’s murder rate of 5.2 per 100,000 residents is roughly the same as the national rate of 5.0 per 100,000. Florida's murder rate is the 18th highest in the country.
Where are these crimes being committed?
Because crime is influenced by local circumstances, crime levels vary considerably within each state. Often a state’s dense urban areas will have higher crime rates than its rural areas. Even in a state with an exceptionally low crime rate, there is often at least one area where crime rates exceed the nation.
City with the highest crime rate in Florida
The city with the highest total crime rate in Florida is Florida City, with a crime rate of 9,885 per 100,000 residents. This excludes cities with a population below 5,000 and cities with incomplete FBI crime reports.
Because property crimes are much more common than violent crimes, it is often the case that the city with the highest total crime rate in a state is a city with an especially high property crime rate but not the highest violent crime rate. However, this is not the case in Florida. Not only does the city have the highest total crime rate in the state, but it also has the highest violent crime rate, making it the most dangerous in the state. Its violent crime rate of 2,619 per 100,000 residents is nearly seven times the statewide rate.
Crime over time
National historical trend
The FBI provides access to crime data by state dating back to 1960. This 60-year span, can be divided into three periods. Crime skyrocketed between 1960 and 1980, with the crime rate more than tripling in just 20 years from 1,887 crimes per 100,000 Americans to 5,950 crimes per 100,000 Americans.
Crime remained high in the 1980s and reached its second highest peak in 1991. Since that year, crime has fallen steadily nationwide, reaching its current rate of 2,489 per 100,000, a 58% decline in 28 years.
Florida's historical trend
In 1960, Florida's crime rate was 2,705 crimes per 100,000 residents. Crime peaked in the state in 1988 at 8,938 per 100,000, an increase of 230%.
Crime changes 2014-2019
Over the five years since 2014, the nationwide total crime rate has decreased by 15.2%, but this change varied dramatically between states. In New Hampshire, for example, the crime rate decreased by 37.0%, the largest decline of any state. The largest increase was in Alaska, where crime rose by 11.3% between 2014 and 2019.
With a decrease of 25.6%, Florida's crime rate has fallen faster than the country as a whole. The crime rate declined in 48 states over this time period, but in most of them, it declined slower than in Florida.
How Florida has compared to other states historically
Since 1960, Florida has always had a higher crime rate than the majority of states. Over these 60 years, the state has been among the 10 states with the highest crime rates in 52 of them, but never among the states with the lowest crime rates. Notably, Florida has been the state with the highest crime rate in the country in 16 years since 1960, by far the most of any state.
All cities in Florida
Here are all Florida cities ranked by total crime rate. For a city to be included, it must have a complete 2019 FBI crime report and population of 5,000 or more. Click any bar or city name to see more about crime in that city.
Click here to see a list of all city crime pages.
Click here to see a list of all state crime pages.
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