St. Louis Sadly Named the #1 Murder Capital of America

It's not that much of a surprise and that fact alone is sad. St. Louis has just been ranked as the #1 murder capital in America.

Neighborhood Scout does an annual ranking of cities and the number of murders within each area. They measure the number of murders per 1,000 residents and St. Louis is by far the highest rate and there isn't even a very close 2nd. Here's how they ranked St. Louis by their numbers:

Murder Rate (per 1,000 residents): .87
13.4X U.S. Average
No. of Murders: 263

13.4 times the murder rate of the United States average which is way above #2 Petersburg, Virginia which is also bad at 11 times the national average.

St. Louis is not the only Midwestern metro with depressing murder numbers. Kansas City is ranked at #20 on the murder capital list.

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One city you won't see in the top 30 is also a surprise: Chicago. It's still not good news for Chicago as the Chicago Tribune noted that 797 people were murdered in the city in 2021 which was an increase over the previous year. ABC 7 in Chicago said that the murders in 2021 were the worst in the city in a quarter century.

Neighborhood Scout noted that the statistics they used were considered 'final' by the FBI so this is likely as accurate a gauge as you're gonna get about just how bad the big cities in our part of America truly are.