Given their size and popularity with tourists, it’s little wonder that Las Vegas and Reno both have higher crime rates than the state of Nevada overall. But Nevada is not without surprises. A much smaller community, Winnemucca, with a resident population of just over 8,000, has the second-highest rates of both property crimes and violent crimes among Nevada cities.
While Las Vegas has Nevada’s highest property crime rate and Reno leads for violent crimes, Winnemucca, self-styled as “the City of Paved Streets,” ranks second in both categories. In addition to that dubious honor, Winnemucca was also the site of a 1900 bank robbery by outlaw Butch Cassidy and his gang.1
Boulder City, Nevada, had the lowest rates of both property and violent crimes, making it one of the safest cities in the state. Boulder City has a much different vibe than Las Vegas, located about 26 miles away since it's one of the only cities in the entire state that prohibits gambling.
For both property crime and violent crime, Nevada’s overall statewide rates are higher than the national rates and the state has the eighth-highest property crime rate. Additionally, it just barely missed out on having the top 10 rates of both types of crimes, as its violent crime rate is the 11th highest in the country.
But compared to other states in its region, Nevada stacks up more favorably due to many states in the region having high crime rates. For example, the four highest property crime rates are all in the West — as are seven of the top 10. Additionally, the two states with the highest violent crime rates: New Mexico and Alaska. Both are in the West.
When determining property crime rates in Nevada, we looked at larceny-theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft incidents.
Violent crimes include murder/non-negligent homicide, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery, and in Nevada and elsewhere, these incidents are much less common than property crimes.
Our data comes from comprehensive reporting compiled by the FBI and accessed via the Crime Data Explorer website. Property and violent crime state figures were drawn from Table 5 of the 2022 Crime in the U.S. Report. Metropolitan figures were found in Table 6, Crime in the U.S. by Metropolitan Statistical Area. City-level figures were drawn from Table 8, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement by State by City. The population figures in that table are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1, 2020.
Limitations: According to the FBI, the data in the publication tables may differ from those released on the Explorer Pages of the CDE. These variations are due to the difference in methodologies between the publication tables and data displayed on the CDE. Please note that crime statistics are not the sole measure of a city’s safety.