Tennessee’s Safest Cities of 2024

See crime rates for the safest cities.

According to our most recent State of Safety report, Tennesseans worry more about crime and safety on a daily basis than most Americans. This matches the state's high violent and property crime rates. The safest cities in The Volunteer State boast crime rates far below both national and statewide levels.

While Tennessee's crime rates dipped last year, both violent crime and property crime saw an uptick this year. The state's violent crime rate rose from 6.7 incidents per 1,000 people to 6.9. The property crime rate went up from 22.8 incidents per 1,000 people to 23.4.

Tennessee comes in above the US rate for both violent (4.0) and property crime (20.7). Those rates put Tennessee as the state with the second-highest violent crime rate and the twelfth-highest property crime rate.

Folks in Tennessee are more worried about property crime than most Americans and the state’s property crime rate is 13% higher than the national average—23.4 incidents per 1,000 people compared to 20.7 nationwide. And while the state's property crime rate was on a downward trend over the past four years, Tennessee followed national trends with an uptick this year. 

• Tennessee’s property crime rate rose about 3% year over year.
• Nearly 6 in 10 respondents (59%) said they're highly concerned about property crime on a regular basis (US 52%).
• Although property crime seems to be on the rise as per crime rates and reported experiences from survey respondents (27%), The Volunteer State comes in at number 21 for the lowest reported property crime experience.
• 81% of survey participants use some form of property protection (US 75%).
• The top forms of property protection among Tennesseeans are security cameras and firearms, each used by 37% of respondents who use home security measures. 
• More than 4 in 10 respondents (43%) told us they increased their security measures in the 12 months prior to the survey. That's the second-highest in the US.

• Over 6 in 10 survey respondents (62%) told us they worry about package theft on a daily basis—the fifth-highest in the US.
• 40% of survey respondents in Tennessee reported experiencing package theft in the 12 months prior to the survey (US 35%). That's the tenth-highest in the US.
• Memphis was the second-worst metro area for porch pirates in our 2023 report.
• 70% of respondents told us they take measures to try to protect their packages.
• The preferred methods of package protection in Tennessee are doorbell/security cameras (37%) and verified delivery (27%). 

The violent crime rate rose slightly year over year—so did reported personal experience with violent crime in Tennessee (from 14% last year to 17%). Unsurprisingly, Tennesseans worry more about violent crime than most of the country (62% versus 50% across the US). Tennessee survey respondents are 24% more concerned than the average American when it comes to worries about a violent crime actually happening to them.

• 38% of Tennesseans say they feel safe in their state, which is below the US average of 45% and 17% lower than the previous survey.
• Despite a higher crime rate than the US, murder accounts for a smaller percentage of all violent crimes in Tennessee (1% vs US 2%).
• Tennessee reports fewer rapes than most of the country, with sexual assaults accounting for 6% of all violent crime, compared to 11% nationwide.
• 43% of Tennesseans use some form of personal protection like a stun gun or pepper spray (US 36%).
• The top forms of personal protection used by Tennessee respondents this survey year are a concealed firearm (53%) and pepper spray (35%).

• 54% of Tennessee survey respondents are worried about a gun violence incident happening to them (US 51%).
• 14% of participants said they experienced gun violence during the 12 months prior to the survey (US 12%). That's a 40% increase year over year.
• Mass shooting incidents increased to 21 in 2023 from 17 in 2021—that’s a 24% bump year over year.
• Firearms are the most-used form of personal and property protection in The Volunteer State, with 53% of those who use security measures carrying concealed firearms and 37% using them for home protection.

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• 90 cities met criteria to be considered for ranking.
• Signal Mountain lands in the top spot for the first time.
• 5 cities moved into our top 20 this year: Signal Mountain, Loudon, Erwin, Kingston, and Mount Carmel.
• Fairview and Church Hill are the only cities from last year's list that moved up this year. Fairview jumped 9 spots and Church Hill climbed 3.
• The violent crime rate in the safest cities is 1.5 incidents per 1,000 people—that's 78% lower than the state rate of 6.9.
• Signal Mountain has the lowest violent crime rate with 0.1 incidents per 1,000 people.
• The property crime rate in the safest cities is 8.3 incidents per 1,000 people. That's 64% below the state rate of 20.7.
• Oakland has the lowest property crime rate at 2.3 incidents per 1,000 people.
• Spring Hill, Hendersonville, Franklin, Gallatin, and Collierville all have around 50,000 residents or more—a testament to the great job these cities do keeping per capita crime rates low.

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Find all endnotes and sources in our full methodology.

FBI Crime Data Explorer, "Documents & Downloads." Accessed March 18, 2024.

• 2022 and 2021 Crime in the United States Annual Reports
  • Offenses Known to Law Enforcement
• 2022 NIBRS Estimation Tables

Bureau of Justice Statistics, "National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)." Accessed March 18, 2024.

Gun Violence Archive, "Mass Shootings." Accessed March 18, 2023.