Illinois’ 10 Most Dangerous Cities, New Data Reveals

There are many ways to measure how dangerous a city is. It's important to understand when you see any most dangerous places lists what data they're based on and how recent the information is. I've compiled a new list of the most dangerous cities in Illinois based on the most recent data I can find.

The most reliable data when it comes to crime unsurprisingly comes from the FBI. There are also numbers publicly available from the Illinois State Highway Patrol. I believe that last full year of complete crime data was a couple years ago based on public databases. This list features both violent and property crime in Illinois and what's interesting is the list is completely different when you look at it per capita. Would you believe that Chicago isn't even top 5 when you look at it that way?

It's very important to emphasize that crime in most of these cities is localized. There are great neighborhoods and communities in almost all of these cities with pockets of high crime that elevates the overall area onto lists like this. The only Illinois city on this list where I have genuinely felt "in danger" is East St. Louis. I remember driving through that area years ago and there were smoldering buildings with people walking by like that was normal. I have friends and family that live in Danville and Rockford that love their lives. It's all a matter of being careful where you spend time in each of these Illinois places.