Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Alaska?
We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.
To find the cities in Alaska with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the FBI crime data on murders for the 7 cities in the Last Frontier with over 6,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in Alaska? The city with the highest murder rate in Alaska is Palmer with 46 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in Alaska with highest number of murders? The city in Alaska with the highest number of murders is Anchorage with 27 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Alaska ranked. There were ‘only’ 7 cities in Alaska where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 15 places had no murder.
46 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in Alaska
Located in
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Palmer is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 5,937.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
28 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in Alaska
16 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in Alaska
Located in
Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is two hundred and eighteen miles southwest of Anchorage. According to the 2010 Census, the population is 5,003. Long known as The “Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.” Homer is also nicknamed “the end of the road,” and more recently, “the cosmic hamlet by the sea.”
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
10 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in Alaska
Located in
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Wasilla is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the sixth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the state. The city’s population was 7,831 at the 2010 census. Estimates in 2013 put the population at roughly 8,621. Wasilla is the largest city in the borough and a part of the Anchorage metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 396,142 in 2013.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
9 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in Alaska
Located in
Anchorage Municipality, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 298,192 residents in 2016, it is Alaska’s most populous city and contains more than 40 percent of the state’s total population; among the 50 states, only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in its most populous city. All together, the Anchorage metropolitan area, which combines Anchorage with the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 401,635 in 2016, which accounts for more than half of the state’s population.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
6 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in Alaska
Located in
Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
3 per 100k · #7 highest murder rate in Alaska
Located in
Juneau City and Borough, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau, commonly known as Juneau, is the capital city of Alaska. It is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the Alaskan panhandle, and it is the second largest city in the United States by area. Juneau has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. The municipality unified on July 1, 1970, when the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current municipality, which is larger by area than both Rhode Island and Delaware.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
On the map
Where Alaska’s murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Alaska
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of murders in each city annually.
We only looked at every single city in Alaska for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 7 cities to rank.
We took the number of murders per capita as the ranking factor. The place with the most murders per capita based on the most recent data is Palmer. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Alaska. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In Alaska
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 7 Alaska cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In Alaska For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in Alaska with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.
The cities with the highest murder per capita in Alaska are Palmer, North Slope Borough, Homer, Wasilla, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau.
