Crime in New Hampshire

New Hampshire's crime rate

There were 18,516 crimes reported in New Hampshire in 2019, the most recent year crime data is available. Adjusted for population, New Hampshire's crime rate is 1,362 crimes per 100,000 residents.

How does New Hampshire compare?

Crime is relatively rare in New Hampshire. By comparison, the national crime rate of 2,489 per 100,000 people is 83% higher. Of the 50 states, 48 have a higher crime rate than New Hampshire.

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 higher in New Hampshire, with property crimes accounting for 89% of all crimes reported in the state.

There were 16,442 property crimes reported in New Hampshire in 2019, or 1,209 per 100,000 residents. This is far lower than the national rate of 2,110 property crimes per 100,000 people and is the second lowest 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. New Hampshire's rate of 1,017 reported larceny incidents per 100,000 residents is lower than the nationwide rate of 1,550 per 100,000 and is the fourth lowest among states.

Burglary

An estimated 1,717 break-ins were reported in New Hampshire in 2019, or 126 per 100,000 state residents -- the 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. New Hampshire's rate of 66 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents was a fraction of this national rate and the fourth lowest rate compared to all states.

Violent crime

Violent crimes make up a small share of crimes nationwide. In New Hampshire, violent crimes account for just 11% of total crimes, versus 15% nationwide.

Just as New Hampshire has the second lowest total crime rate of all states, it also has the second lowest violent crime rate. The state’s violent crime rate of 153 per 100,000 people is less than half the national rate of 379 per 100,000. There were 2,074 violent crimes reported to New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire, 1,138 aggravated assaults were reported in 2019. New Hampshire's rate of aggravated assault of 84 per 100,000 people is less than half the national rate of 250 per 100,000 and is the second lowest of all states.

Robbery

Robbery is the second most common type of violent crime in America. There were 313 robberies reported in New Hampshire in 2019, or 23 robberies for every 100,000 residents. This is just a fraction of the national rate of 82 robberies per 100,000 people, and the eighth lowest robbery rate among states.

Rape

There were 590 reported rapes in 2019 in New Hampshire. The state's rate of rape of 43.4 per 100,000 residents is similar to the national rate of 42.6 per 100,000 people. New Hampshire has the 23rd lowest rate of rape.

Murder

In 2019, there were 33 murders reported to law enforcement in New Hampshire. The state’s murder rate of 2.4 per 100,000 residents is less than half the national rate of 5.0 per 100,000. New Hampshire's murder rate is the 12th lowest 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 New Hampshire

The city with the highest total crime rate in New Hampshire is Laconia, with a crime rate of 3,460 per 100,000 residents. This excludes cities with a population below 5,000 and cities with incomplete FBI crime reports.

While the city may have the highest total crime rate in the state, the rate is driven by property crime. Therefore, Laconia is likely less dangerous than other cities in the state where more violent crimes are committed.

The most dangerous city in the state is Manchester. This city has the highest violent crime rate in New Hampshire, at 601 per 100,000 residents, nearly four 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.

New Hampshire's historical trend

In 1960, New Hampshire's crime rate was 690 crimes per 100,000 residents. Crime peaked in the state in 1980 at 4,680 per 100,000, an increase of 578%.

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.

How New Hampshire has compared to other states historically

Since 1960, New Hampshire has always had a lower crime rate than the majority of states. Over these 60 years, the state has been among the 10 states with the lowest crime rates in 52 of them, but never among the states with the highest crime rates. Notably, New Hampshire has been the state with the lowest crime rate in the country in seven years since 1960.

All cities in New Hampshire

Here are all New Hampshire 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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