There are plenty of good reasons to live in Idaho, and here’s one of them: Counting all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territory of Puerto Rico, you’re tenth least likely to be a victim of violent crime in Idaho. Or at least you were in 2020, the most recent year for which statistics are available. In 2020 in Idaho, there were 4,432 violent crimes. That seems like a lot, but based upon the population of Idaho, it means that out of every 100,000 people, about 242 were crime victims. Maine is the safest on the list. In Maine in 2020, there were 1,466 violent crimes, meaning that only 108 out of every 100,000 people were victims. Next safest is New Hampshire, with 146, then Puerto Rico with 164, Vermont with 173, Connecticut with 181, New Jersey with 195, Virginia with 208, Rhode Island with 230, Wyoming with 234, then Idaho. Worst on the list is Washington, D.C., where 999 out of every 100,000 people can expect to be victims of violent crime. Alaska is next at 837, followed by New Mexico at 778, Tennessee at 672 and Arkansas at 671. Washington, D.C., despite being the most dangerous place in the United States, has improved over time. Their number in 2020 was 999, but in 2013 it was 1,281. You may be thinking it’s odd that New Jersey was sixth safest. It doesn’t have that reputation. But New Jersey has improved to 195 in 2020 from 308 in 2011. Montana, meanwhile, is worse than it used to be. In 2020, 469 out of every 100,000 people were victims of violent crime in Montana. In 2013 it was only 240. Murder is included in the violent crime rates, but the murder rates are much lower everywhere. The most recent year for murder rates is 2021. That year, Washington, D.C. was the place where you were most likely to be murdered in the U.S., but the rate is only 30 murders per 100,000 people. The rest of the top five for murder are Mississippi with 23, Louisiana with 21, and Alabama and New Mexico, each with 15. If you don’t want to get murdered, your best bets are Wyoming, Vermont and New Hampshire, which all had no murders in 2021. Not one. Vermont, in fact, hasn’t had a murder in a decade. Following the three states with perfect records, Maine scored a 1.7, and Idaho was fifth with only 2.2, just ahead of Massachusetts, Utah and Hawaii. And here’s more good news for Idaho: You’re not very likely to get your stuff stolen here. The worst states for property crimes are Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington and South Carolina. The best are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Idaho, Maine and New Jersey. Is it all about per capita income? A little, but not entirely. New Mexico and Louisiana have high crime rates and low incomes, so that figures. But the worst place for crime in the United States is Washington, D.C., which also has the highest per capita income. Idaho has a low crime rate but is only average in income. So that statistic alone doesn’t tell the story. The answer may be the “people in the middle”. If your state has a solid percentage of middle-class households, for instance, if the average income is $65,000 per household and a majority of the people make about $65,000, it’s likely to be reasonably safe. But, like Washington, D.C., if the average income is $90,000 and it’s because half the people make about $180,000 and half make about nothing, living there could be murder.
