Mobile and Birmingham, Alabama, were named the second and third most unsafe cities in the United States, respectively, according to a recent article by Forbes. The rankings are based on a study conducted by MoneyGeek, a personal finance technology company that has compiled an annual list of America’s most dangerous cities for three years.
MoneyGeek uses FBI crime statistics, including violent and property crimes, to calculate the total cost of crime in cities with populations exceeding 100,000. The analysis assigns rankings based on the per-capita cost of crime. For instance, the study estimates that a single murder costs a city $9 million, while larceny incurs an average cost of $3,500. Consequently, the financial impact of a murder is 2,571 times greater than that of larceny.
“The cost of crime per capita is not only a data point about how much crime happens in a given population, but it also demonstrates the severity of the crimes happening,” said Doug Milnes, MoneyGeek’s chief of data analytics. “For example, murders and high-level assaults have higher costs than larceny or simple theft. By aggregating each crime into an easily readable stat based on population, we can make broad comparisons about which are the most dangerous cities in the country.”
St. Louis, Missouri, claimed the top spot as the most dangerous city, with Mobile and Birmingham following closely behind. While the two Alabama cities have lower per-capita murder rates compared to St. Louis, their high rates of property crime contribute significantly to their rankings.
“Mobile has been consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the country,” Milnes explained. “The property crime rate and violent crime rate there are among the highest in the nation. However, Mobile ranks just below St. Louis in overall danger due to having fewer high-cost crimes like murder. Both Mobile and Birmingham exhibit above-average crime rates and relatively lower standards of living.”