Chicago has carried a reputation for decades as one of the most dangerous major cities in the United States. News of shootings and homicides regularly makes national and international headlines, creating the impression that simply living in America’s third-largest city comes with considerable risk. The statistics, however, tell a more complicated story. Chicago does have a serious crime problem, particularly when it comes to shootings and homicides, but many of the most serious crimes are concentrated in specific parts of the city.
Crime is almost impossible to avoid when Chicago is discussed in the American media. For decades, Chicago has been regarded as one of the country’s more dangerous major cities. Frequent reports of shootings, homicides and other serious crimes have also given the city a poor reputation well beyond the United States.
As a result, people who have never lived in Chicago can easily come away with the impression that its more than 2.7 million residents are surrounded by shootings on a daily basis and that simply going outside after dark is inherently risky.
The statistics, however, paint a somewhat different picture. Chicago does have high rates of serious crime, particularly compared with major cities in Europe, Asia and Australia. But it is not the most dangerous city in the United States, and conditions vary enormously within Chicago itself. In some parts of the city, shootings and homicides are relatively common; in others, they are rare.
How Can Crime in Chicago, London and Tokyo Be Compared?
Comparing overall crime rates across countries is not particularly reliable. Criminal offenses are not defined in exactly the same way everywhere, police procedures and methods of recording crime differ, and there are significant differences in how likely people are to report certain offenses to the police. A city having more “reported crimes” than another therefore does not necessarily mean that it is more dangerous.
One measure that allows for a more meaningful international comparison is the homicide rate relative to population. According to the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General, Chicago recorded 427 homicides in 2025. At the same time, crime declined significantly: the total number of reported crimes fell by 8.3 percent compared with 2024.
The University of Chicago Crime Lab also reported a substantial decline in violence in 2025. Its researchers noted, however, that even after this improvement, Chicago’s homicide rate remained considerably higher than those of New York and Los Angeles, with an even greater gap compared with London, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo.
New York Is Three Times Larger – Yet Has Fewer Homicides
A comparison between Chicago and New York offers a good example of why population size alone does not determine a city’s crime rate. New York has more than eight million residents, roughly three times Chicago’s population, yet it recorded “only” 305 homicides in 2025.
This suggests that Chicago’s crime problem cannot simply be attributed to the fact that it is a large American city. New York has also seen a decline in serious violence in recent years. According to the NYPD, 2025 was one of the safest years in the city’s modern history in terms of shootings and homicides.
Chicago Far Outpaces Major European Cities in Homicides
The difference becomes even more pronounced when Chicago is compared with major European cities. London has nearly nine million residents, more than three times Chicago’s population, yet recorded 97 homicides in 2025. That was the British capital’s lowest annual homicide total in 11 years. Chicago, despite having a fraction of London’s population, recorded more than four times as many homicides.
Berlin, for example, records significantly fewer homicides relative to its population than Chicago. Tokyo, meanwhile, is one of the world’s largest cities, but crime there looks very different: according to Tokyo police data, theft accounted for more than 60 percent of all criminal offenses recorded in 2025.
The figures therefore confirm that Chicago has a serious problem with homicides, shootings and other serious crimes.
Not Every Part of Chicago Is Equally Dangerous
Chicago covers a vast area and is divided into 77 official community areas, each containing numerous smaller neighborhoods. Looking only at the citywide crime rate is therefore somewhat like looking at the average price of a home across all of Chicago: the figure may be statistically accurate, but it does not necessarily describe conditions in any particular neighborhood.
Data from the University of Chicago Crime Lab show just how dramatically conditions can differ from one part of the city to another. According to its 2024 analysis, the homicide rate in the hardest-hit parts of Chicago was approximately 68 times higher than in the areas with the lowest rate.
Shootings show a similarly stark pattern. From 2019 through 2023, 93 percent of shootings recorded during the summer months occurred within roughly one-quarter of the geographic areas included in the analysis. Even more strikingly, approximately half of all summer shootings occurred within just 10 percent of those areas.
This means that two people who both say they live “in Chicago” may, in practice, experience completely different levels of safety. One may live in an area where shootings and homicides are a serious and recurring problem, while another may live only a few miles away for years without ever encountering that kind of violence.
The familiar distinction between the “safe North Side” and the “dangerous South Side” is not precise enough either. There are quiet neighborhoods on the South Side, just as theft, robbery and other crimes occur downtown and on the North Side.
So, How Dangerous Is Chicago Really?
When Chicago is viewed as a whole and compared with London, Berlin, Tokyo, or even New York and other major cities, the data show that homicides and shootings occur considerably more often in Chicago.
That does not, however, mean that the entire city is dangerous to live in. A large share of Chicago’s homicides and shootings occurs in a relatively small number of areas, while conditions in other neighborhoods are very different. A citywide crime rate therefore tells us relatively little about the level of risk faced by any individual Chicago resident.
There is no simple answer to the question of whether Chicago is a dangerous city. When it comes to homicides and shootings, Chicago is more dangerous than several of the major cities compared in this article. But when it comes to determining how dangerous it actually is to live in Chicago, a far more important question is: What part of Chicago do you live in?
Photos: ChatGPT
