Rockford Tagged As 4th Most Dangerous City In The Midwest

Although we've seen Rockford receive poor grades on a variety of things over the years, it still sucks to see our city show up on yet another list of the country's most dangerous places.

However, as the city of Danville, Illinois knows, there are worse places on the dangerous cities list than the spot that Rockford occupies.

A New Study By 24/7 Wall Street Looks At The FBI’s 2020 Uniform Crime Report

The FBI's numbers show that Danville, a town to the east of Champaign, is the 6th most dangerous metro area in the entire country, and the most dangerous metro area in Illinois. The title of most dangerous metro area in the United States goes to Memphis.

24/7 Wall Street says that, based upon the FBI numbers, there were 785 violent crimes reported in Danville's metro area in 2020, or 1,050 for every 100,000 people. There were also 13 homicides in Danville in 2020, a murder rate of 17.4 per 100,000. That's more than double the national average of 6.5 per 100,000.

Rockford's Numbers, While Better Than Danville's, Aren't Anything To Brag About

Yeah, okay...we're behind Danville in the dangerous category, but only a little bit. Here's what 24/7 Wall Street posted after naming Rockford the 17th most dangerous city in the country and 4th most dangerous in the Midwest:

Rockford is the second most dangerous metro area in Illinois and the fourth most dangerous in the Midwest. There were 2,566 violent crimes reported in Rockford in 2020, or 771 for every 100,000 people. Violent crimes surged in 2020, and the area’s violent crime rate is now 21.5% higher than it was in 2019.

Rising rates of violence in the metro area were led by an 80% spike in murders, from 20 in 2019 to 36 in 2020. The metro area also reported a 30% jump in cases of aggravated assault last year.