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The Most Burglarized Cities in Every State

By Rebecca Edwards

Feb 24, 2022

2 min read

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The most-burglarized city in every state

We found the most-burglarized city in every state and the results may surprise you—it looks like burglars prefer small towns over big cities.

Among the cities with the most burglaries per capita, only nine (19%) have populations higher than 15,000 people. On the flipside, another nine (19%) are home to fewer than 1,000 residents.

Nationwide, burglary is the second-most common property crime, accounting for 16% of all reported incidents. But in the most-burglarized cities, that jumps up to 23%.

See where burglars are busiest in your state (and where a new security cam might help out the most) in the full list below.

Burglary risks

In 2019, burglaries cost Americans around $3 billion in property losses, for an average loss of $2,661 per offense.¹ With so much money on the line, we were surprised to find that only 28% of Americans use a security camera to protect their property and even fewer (25%) use a home security system.²

United states map displaying each state's city with the highest burglary rate

A closer look at the most-burglarized cities in every state

The top 5 cities with the most burglaries per capita are Vernon, California; Sauget, Illinois; Maggie Valley, North Carolina; Berry Hill, Tennessee; and Quincy, Florida.
Vernon, California is a major outlier, with more burglaries reported than there are people who live there. In 2019, this tiny California town reported 133 burglaries among its 112 residents. That works out to 118.8 burglaries per 100 people—more than 111 incidents higher than the next-closest town of Sauget, Illinois with 7.32 burglaries per 100.
36 (75%) of the cities on the list had fewer than two burglaries per 100 people.
14 cities (29%) reported fewer than one burglary per 100 people.
Vernon, California is the smallest city on the list with 112 residents. Des Moines, Iowa is the most populous with 218,384—but Des Moines has 99% fewer burglaries per 100 people than Vernon (1.05 versus 118.75, respectively).
Only 9 of the most-burglarized cities (19%) have populations above 15,000—the threshold we use to rank the 100 Safest Cities in America.
81% of the cities (39) have populations below 15,000.
60% of the top 5 most-burglarized cities are in the south.
Burglars are less busy in New England. Even the most-burglarized cities in New England states report fewer than one burglary per 100 residents.

The full list: Find your state's most-burglarized city

State	State's most-burglarized city	City population	City's total burglaries in 2019	Burglary rate*
Alaska	Wasilla	10,915	115	1.05
Arizona	Tolleson	7,399	206	2.78
Arkansas	El Dorado	17,820	524	2.94
California	Vernon	112	133	118.75
Colorado	Black Hawk	128	4	3.13
Connecticut	New Haven	130,494	659	0.51
Delaware	Laurel	4,469	42	0.94
Florida	Quincy	7,143	242	3.39
Georgia	Nashville	4,799	57	1.19
Idaho	Sandpoint	8,873	59	0.66
Illinois	Sauget	164	12	7.32
Indiana	South Bend	101,944	867	0.85
Iowa	Des Moines	218,384	2,284	1.05
Kansas	Independence	8,497	93	1.09
Kentucky	Edmonton	1,567	20	1.28
Louisiana	Bastrop	10,156	302	2.97
Maine	Mexico	2,605	20	0.77
Maryland	Ocean City	6,905	94	1.36
Massachusetts	North Adams	12,800	88	0.69
Michigan	Muskegon Heights	10,717	113	1.05
Minnesota	Clearbrook	520	9	1.73
Mississippi	Summit	1,577	47	2.98
Missouri	Northmoor	349	6	1.72
Montana	Billings	110,198	608	0.55
Nebraska	Nebraska City	7,273	68	0.93
Nevada	Winnemucca	7,800	56	0.72
New Hampshire	Colebrook	2,114	14	0.66
New Jersey	Stone Harbor	804	14	1.74
New Mexico	Deming	14,011	218	1.56
New York	Woodridge Village	776	8	1.03
North Carolina	Maggie Valley	1,230	50	4.07
North Dakota	Belfield	1,028	9	0.88
Ohio	Canton	70,139	962	1.37
Oklahoma	Geary	1,276	30	2.35
Oregon	Coos Bay	16,471	172	1.04
Pennsylvania	Southwest Regional	131	2	1.53
Rhode Island	New Shoreham	1,032	7	0.68
South Carolina	Blackville	2,194	62	2.83
South Dakota	Martin	1,071	20	1.87
Tennessee	Berry Hill	515	19	3.69
Texas	Bowie	5,040	70	1.39
Utah	South Salt Lake	25,599	255	1
Vermont	Brattleboro	11,401	53	0.46
Virginia	Elkton	2,900	34	1.17
Washington	Ephrata	8,253	105	1.27
West Virginia	Huntington	45,675	456	1
Wisconsin	Mauston	4,364	70	1.6
Wyoming	Wheatland	3,544	24	0.68

Methodology

To find the most-burglarized city in each state, we analyzed the most recent FBI burglary statistics and population data.² We excluded cities with populations below 100 and any that didn’t report complete data to the FBI in 2019 (the most recent year for which data was available).

To even the playing field, we calculated the number of burglaries reported per 100 people in each city that qualified in every state. The city with the highest number of burglaries per 100 people for each state landed on our list.

Alabama and Hawaii were excluded because there weren’t enough city data to analyze; only one city in each state provided burglary data in 2019. Washington, D.C. was also excluded.