Which country in the us had the highest average crime rate in 2020?
Executive summary
New Mexico is the state most commonly identified by multiple data aggregators as having the highest overall reported crime rate in 2020, with DataPandas ranking New Mexico at roughly 6,462 incidents per 100,000 residents that year and Newsweek citing that ranking [1] [2]. That finding sits alongside a different, but related, signal: Alaska routinely records the nation’s highest violent‑crime rate (distinct from overall reported crime) — a reminder that “highest crime” depends on the metric used [3].
1. New Mexico atop aggregate rankings: the headline finding
Several compiled state‑by‑state rankings that used FBI summaries and aggregated reported offenses place New Mexico at the top of the list for reported crime in 2020, with DataPandas showing New Mexico “headlining” the list with about 6,462 reported crimes per 100,000 people and Newsweek reproducing that map and conclusion [1] [2]. Those same secondary analyses and news summaries also put Louisiana and other states close behind, underscoring that New Mexico’s position is prominent in widely circulated secondary rankings of 2020 data [2] [1].
2. Violent crime vs. overall (property + violent): an important distinction
The assertion that New Mexico had the highest overall reported crime rate in 2020 must be separated from which state had the highest violent‑crime rate: Alaska is repeatedly identified as having the highest violent crime rate (and is singled out by World Population Review and other summaries for that distinction), which shows how different metrics produce different “winners” [3]. Likewise, USAFacts and other compilers highlight New Mexico as having exceptionally high property‑crime rates in related years, which helps explain its high aggregate ranking even as Alaska leads on violent crime specifically [4].
3. Why rankings differ: data sources, aggregation and methodological caveats
Public rankings of “highest crime” rely on underlying FBI reporting systems and secondary aggregators; the FBI’s shift from the Summary Reporting System to NIBRS and gaps in local reporting complicate year‑to‑year comparisons and can change rankings depending on which offenses are counted and how [4] [5]. Many commercial or news site lists (DataPandas, WorldPopulationReview, Newsweek) synthesize FBI numbers into a single per‑100,000 “reported crime” metric, but those composites weigh property and violent offenses together and therefore can place states with very high property crime ahead of states with higher violent crime [1] [2] [3].
4. Alternative signals and the District of Columbia caveat
Some sources and later years show the District of Columbia or other jurisdictions leading on violent crime per capita; for example, Statista’s FBI‑based charts record the District of Columbia as having the highest reported violent‑crime rate in other years, illustrating that jurisdiction type (state vs. district) and year both matter when naming a single “highest” place [6] [7]. Reporting aggregators that exclude territories or treat D.C. differently will therefore produce different top‑ranked entries, an implicit agenda of some lists to present only states rather than all U.S. jurisdictions [6].
5. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
Based on multiple widely cited compilations of 2020 data, New Mexico emerges as the state with the highest overall reported crime rate in 2020, while Alaska tops violent‑crime rankings — a distinction captured in the World Population Review, DataPandas and Newsweek reporting [1] [2] [3]. This answer reflects those secondary compilations and the caveats they document: different metrics (violent vs. property vs. combined), evolving FBI reporting systems, and whether non‑state jurisdictions like D.C. are included can all change which place is “highest,” and the primary FBI Crime Data Explorer remains the authoritative source for raw filings though its interfaces and transitions complicate direct comparisons [5] [4].