Crime rate & statistics
Memphis Crime Rate & Safety Statistics
Memphis against national benchmarks, framed as odds rather than abstract indices.
Key indices
Memphis crime at a glance
Index values are scaled so that 100 equals the U.S. average.
Your odds
Estimated victimization risk
Calibrated against national benchmark rates and expressed as everyday odds.
Trend
Is crime rising or falling in Memphis?
Reported incidents per month over the most recent year of data.
Context
How to read these numbers
There is no softening it: Memphis posts violent- and property-crime rates well above the national average, and the city has repeatedly ranked among the highest in the country. Yet the burden is profoundly uneven. A handful of neighborhoods absorb a large share of the most serious incidents, while East Memphis and the eastern suburbs experience far lower risk than the citywide figure implies.
We translate Memphis's crime indices into estimated rates per 100,000 residents using national benchmark rates, then express them as everyday odds such as an annual “1 in N” chance. Indices are scaled so 100 equals the national average, and each area receives an A-to-F letter grade from a curve calibrated across U.S. cities, so a grade means the same thing here as anywhere else.