How does El Paso's crime rate compare to other cities in our region?
El Paso, Texas — While El Paso ranks as one of America's 10 safest big cities, another city that's less than 300 miles from the Borderland, ranks as one of the 10 most dangerous big cities in the U.S.
The website safewise.com recently ranked America's major metropolitan areas on both ends of the scale.
Using FBI crime data from 2017, the website ranked the safety of U.S. cities with a population of 300,000 or more. The Safewise list ranked El Paso as the nation's 6th safest big city with a violent crime rate of less than 4 per 1,000 residents.
Another Texas city, Austin, also ranked high, just below El Paso as the 8th safest city.
On the other end of the spectrum, New Mexico's biggest city, Albuquerque, ranked as the nation's 8th most dangerous big city with a violent crime rate that's more than three times as high as either El Paso or Austin.
Albuquerque's property crime rate, things like burglary, arson and car theft, was more than four times as high as El Paso's property crime rate.
Saint Louis, Missouri ranked as the most dangerous big American city, while Virginia Beach, Virginia ranked as the safest big city. It had a higher property crime rate than El Paso, but its violent crime rate was only one-third as high as the Sun City's.
