The crime rate in Louisiana sits well above national averages across almost every category tracked. In 2024, the state recorded a violent crime rate of about 520 offenses per 100,000 people and a property crime rate of roughly 2,296 per 100,000, both placing it fifth highest in the country.1USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest and Lowest Crime Rates Violent crime has been falling faster in Louisiana than nationally, but the gap between the state and the rest of the country has not closed.
How Louisiana Compares to the Rest of the Country
Louisiana’s 2024 violent crime rate was about 44.8% higher than the 50-state average of 359 per 100,000.2USAFacts. What Is the Crime Rate in Louisiana Only Alaska, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Arkansas ranked higher.1USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest and Lowest Crime Rates
The property crime picture looks much the same. Louisiana’s 2,296 per 100,000 rate ran 30.5% above the national average of 1,760.2USAFacts. What Is the Crime Rate in Louisiana New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon were the only states that reported higher property crime rates that year.1USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest and Lowest Crime Rates
Where Homicide Stands
Homicide is the category where Louisiana’s numbers stand out most sharply. The state had the second-highest homicide rate in the country in 2023, trailing only Mississippi.3USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest Murder Rates CDC mortality data put the rate at 16.4 deaths per 100,000 residents that year.4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Homicide Mortality The national homicide rate in 2023 was about 7.1 per 100,000.
The rate has climbed over the past decade. Between 2013 and 2023, Louisiana’s homicide rate rose by about 7.1 deaths per 100,000, one of the largest increases of any state over that period.3USAFacts. Which States Have the Highest Murder Rates
What the Crime Is
Within Louisiana’s property crime numbers, larceny-theft dominates. In 2024, larceny-thefts accounted for 71.3% of property offenses, burglaries for 17.7%, and motor vehicle thefts for 11.1%.2USAFacts. What Is the Crime Rate in Louisiana That distribution is close to what most states look like.
On the violent crime side, national patterns put aggravated assault at about 70% of reported violent offenses in 2023, robbery at roughly 18%, rape at about 10%, and homicide at roughly 1.5%.5Bureau of Justice Statistics. Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2023 Louisiana follows a broadly similar mix, though the homicide share is noticeably larger given the state’s elevated murder rate.
Crime Rates in Louisiana’s Largest Cities
Statewide numbers paper over substantial local differences. The crime story in Louisiana is largely a story about three cities.
New Orleans
New Orleans has long carried one of the highest homicide rates among major American cities, and Orleans Parish led the nation in per-capita homicides among large metropolitan counties in 2023.6USAFacts. Which Cities Have the Highest Murder Rates About 193 people were killed in the city that year, down from 266 in 2022.
The trend has kept improving. The New Orleans Police Department reported a 29% overall crime decrease in 2024, including a 14% drop in crimes against persons and a 32% drop in property crimes.7NOPD News. NOPD 2024 Crime Statistics Show Significant Decreases in Multiple Categories Early 2025 figures showed fatal shootings down 21% and armed robberies down 28% compared with 2024. The department also reported a homicide clearance rate of about 91%.8NOPD News. NOPD Reports Continued Significant Decrease in Violent Crime in 2025
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge has posted violent crime rates well above the state average. In 2024, the city’s violent crime rate was approximately 1,400 per 100,000, more than double the statewide figure. Homicide counts have held between 78 and 83 a year, with little recent movement even as some other violent categories eased.
Staffing shortages shape the local picture. The Baton Rouge Police Department entered 2026 with what its chief described as the worst staffing shortage in department history, with the force down to 542 officers from 670 a decade earlier. Pay disparities with agencies like the Louisiana State Police, where starting cadets earn roughly $56,000 compared with Baton Rouge’s $40,000, have made recruitment difficult.9Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Victim Services
Shreveport
Shreveport is the third high-crime urban area in the state, with overall rates that typically run above the state average by a wide margin. Detailed 2024 per-capita figures for the city have not been published in a standardized format, and the Shreveport Police Department has reported ongoing challenges with both violent and property crime. The structural pressures resemble those in Baton Rouge: a smaller tax base, limited law enforcement funding, and poverty rates above the state average.
Where the Numbers Are Heading
Violent crime in Louisiana dropped 7.5% between 2023 and 2024, outpacing the 5.4% decline in the 50-state average.2USAFacts. What Is the Crime Rate in Louisiana New Orleans alone saw a 55% reduction in homicides between 2022 and 2025, one of the sharpest declines any major American city has recorded over that stretch.
The longer view is messier. Violent crime rates in Louisiana held relatively flat from 2014 through 2019 before spiking in 2020, a year of pandemic disruption and social upheaval. Property crime had been falling for roughly two decades before leveling off recently. The state’s 2024 property crime rate, while still among the highest in the country, is well below where it was in the early 2000s.
Whether the current declines hold is an open question. Some observers credit improved policing strategies, particularly in New Orleans. Others point to demographic shifts and national trends. The direction is favorable; the baseline is not.
Why Louisiana’s Rates Run So High
No single cause explains Louisiana’s consistent position near the top of national crime rankings, but several structural factors overlap.
Poverty is the most obvious. Louisiana’s 2024 poverty rate was 18.7%, the highest of any state and well above the national rate of 12.1%.10U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty in States and Metropolitan Areas 2024 It is heavily concentrated in urban cores like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport, which are the same cities that drive the state’s crime statistics.
Louisiana also incarcerates more of its population than any other state, at over 1,000 per 100,000 residents when prisons, jails, and other detention facilities are counted together. That level of incarceration tends to feed itself, as people leave prison with limited employment prospects, fractured family ties, and few support systems, all of which raise the odds of reoffending.
Law enforcement capacity is the third piece. As the Baton Rouge staffing crisis illustrates, departments across the state have struggled to fill positions. When agencies are understaffed, response times rise and clearance rates can fall. Pay gaps between local departments and state agencies like the Louisiana State Police make the recruiting problem especially acute in mid-size cities.
A Caveat on the Data
Crime statistics come from law enforcement agencies that voluntarily report to the FBI through what is now called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The FBI moved away from its older Summary Reporting System in recent years, and not every Louisiana agency has kept pace. As recently as 2017, only about 43% of Louisiana law enforcement agencies were submitting data through the newer system.11Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. Crime in Louisiana 2023
The Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement has cautioned against direct year-over-year comparisons because the pool of reporting agencies changes from year to year. Some agencies report for all 12 months; others submit partial data or none at all. The FBI only includes agencies with full 12-month reporting in its published statistics.11Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. Crime in Louisiana 2023 The departments most likely to lack modern reporting software tend to be smaller and rural, which means crime in parts of the state is probably undercounted. The figures above are the best available picture, not a perfect one.