This dashboard examines violent crime rates from 2010 to 2019 for counties in the 5 most populous states that submit violent offense incidents to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. This data is voluntarily submitted by local and state law enforcement offices to the UCR and published by the FBI on an annual basis. Additional population estimates and demographic information is sourced from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey tables.
The line chart above shows the state averages for violent crime rates
from 2010 to 2019. For the entire decade, Florida is the state with the
highest average violent crime rates. Its average violent crime rate is
consistenly more than twice the reported averages for New York and
Illinois combined.
Both Florida and California had bumps in
their state averages in 2017, but they have been declining since.
California is the only state where the average violent crime rate has
increased between 2010 and 2019.
The violin-boxplot above shows the distribution of violent crime rate
of all the counties in our dataset, grouped into quartiles by their
population size. The range of violent crime rates for counties with over
330k inhabitants is much smaller than the range of violent crime for
counties with less than 100k inhabitants.
The plot also includes
a side-by-side comparison of how the violent crime rates changed in
large and small counties from 2010 to 2019. Only counties with 30-100k
residents saw an increase in their violent crime rate range in 2019.
However, the median violent crime rate increased between 2010 and 2019
in counties where there were 30-100k (by almost 8 offenses per 100k
people) and 100-300k residents (by 6 offenses per 100k people).
| State | County | % Difference in Crime Rate, 2010-2019 | Population Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Alpine | 33.3 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Jefferson | -43.3 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Franklin | -41.5 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Putnam | -77.0 | 30k to 100k |
| Florida | Escambia | -29.5 | 100k to 330k |
| Florida | Madison | -7.7 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Gadsden | -72.6 | 30k to 100k |
| California | Sierra | -94.4 | Under 30k |
| California | Plumas | 24.4 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Hendry | -44.8 | 30k to 100k |
| State | County | % Difference in Crime Rate, 2010-2019 | Population Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Alpine | 33.3 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Levy | 268.4 | 30k to 100k |
| California | Plumas | 24.4 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Madison | -7.7 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Dixie | 20.1 | Under 30k |
| California | Trinity | 100.9 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Franklin | -41.5 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Jefferson | -43.3 | Under 30k |
| California | Mariposa | 126.7 | Under 30k |
| Florida | Escambia | -29.5 | 100k to 330k |
These tables show how there is some consistency in the counties with the highest reported violent crime rates in 2010 and in 2019. In both lists, Alpine County, California is the county with the highest violent crime rate. The top 10 highest violent crime rates for both years come from counties in California and Florida, predictably. California’s Plumas County and Florida’s Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Escambia Counties appear in both lists. Escambia County, Florida is the only county on either list with more than 100k residents. Plumas and Alpine Counties in California are also the only counties on both lists that saw an increase in their violent crime rates within the decade.
This line chart shows how violent crime rates were reported for 2019’s counties with the highest violent crime rates since 2010. There is some fluctuation for Alpine County, which begins and ends with the highest violent crime rate. Also, there were no violent offenses reported for Levy County, Florida from 2013 and 2014. Despite having a relatively low violent crime rate in 2010, it increased by multiple orders of magnitude from 2012 to 2015. This could be because of a change in local and state law enforcement reporting habits or because of actual increases in violent crime in the area.
These maps clear show violent crime rates in different parts of
California and Florida. In California, the counties with the highest
reported violent crime rates are in the northern and eastern parts of
the state. Alpine and Plumas Counties are both small counties located in
the northeastern region of the state. In Florida, the counties with the
highest violent crime rates are in the northern half of the
state.
In each of these maps, it is easier to see where there is
missing data for certain counties. California and Florida are the states
with the least missing data at the county level. In California, the only
county with missing data is San Francisco County, a major metropolitan
area. In Florida, several counties are missing data, but only Duval and
St. Johns Counties have relatively large populations. A comprehensive
list of counties with missing data can be found on the Data Notes
page.
When investigating the relationship between violent crime rates and
the young male population or the proportion of owner-occupied homes,
only California and Florida had salient patterns. These relationships
were accentuated by using the natural log of the 2019 violent crime rate
as the y-axis on both graphs. Regarding the relationship between the
number of young men and violent crime rate, Florida counties seem to
have a predictable increase: where the violent crime rate increases were
young men are a larger share of the population; however, California’s
negative relationship between the male population and the (natural log
of) violent crime rate is steeper. This suggests that the young male
share of the population is not one of the biggest indicators of a higher
violent crime rate in a county.
From the data collected, there
appears to be a positive relationship between violent crime rate and the
share of owner-occupied home, especially in California. Please note that
the large county with the lowest percentage of owner-occupied homes is
Los Angeles County, California.
When examining the relationship between violent crime rates and the
proportion of white or college-educated heads-of-households, there are
more consistent trends across the states. Overall, percentage of housing
units occupied by White-Alone householders seems to have a positive
relationship with violent crime rate. The trendline for Texas suggests
that the percentage of White householders does not have a serious impact
on violent crime rates. However, California’s trendline suggests that
its counties with more White householders experience higher violent
crime rates.
Predictably, all 5 states show a noticeable decline
in violent crime rates when college-educated householders make up a
larger share of the inhabitants.
For this bar chart, the largest educational attainment group for each county is identified, grouped and counted to determine the most common educational attainment in a state. Texas is the only state with counties (17) where a substantial portion of heads-of-household do not have a complete high school education or its equivalency. Still, in a majority of reporting Texas counties, the most common educational attainment is “some college.” In California, the most common educational attainment in most counties is “some college” or college graduates. In Florida and New York, popular educational attainment at the county level is fairly balanced.
This dashboard is based around 2019 violent crime data voluntarily submitted to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program by local and state law enforcement offices. There was no data for 2019 violent offenses submitted by the following counties: