Do you live in one of the murder capitals of California?
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 California 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 217 cities in the Golden State with over 7,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in California? The city with the highest murder rate in California is Blythe with 28 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in California with highest number of murders? The city in California with the highest number of murders is Los Angeles with 264 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in California ranked. There were ‘only’ 217 cities in California where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 197 places had no murder.
28 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Riverside County, CaliforniaBlythe is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Palo Verde Valley of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River. Blythe was named after Thomas H. Blythe, a San Francisco financier, who established primary water rights to the Colorado River in the region in 1877. The city was incorporated on July 21, 1916. The population was 20,817 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
26 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Lassen County, CaliforniaSusanville is the county seat of Lassen County, California, United States. Susanville is located on the Susan River in the southern part of the county, at an elevation of 4,186 feet. The population was 17,974 in the 2010 census, up from 13,541 in the 2000 census. Much of the population increase is related to persons held at two state prisons in the city.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
24 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Lake County, CaliforniaClearlake is a city in Lake County, California. Clearlake is 4.5 miles north-northwest of Lower Lake, at an elevation of 1417 feet. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 15,250, up from 13,142 at the 2000 census. It takes its name from Clear Lake.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
23 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Los Angeles County, CaliforniaHawaiian Gardens is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the smallest city in the county and was incorporated on April 9, 1964. The population was 14,254 at the 2010 census, down from 14,779 at the 2000 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
20 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Los Angeles County, CaliforniaCompton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city to incorporate. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 96,455. It is known as the “Hub City” due to its geographic centrality in Los Angeles County. Neighborhoods in Compton include Sunny Cove, Leland, Downtown Compton, and Richland Farms. The city is generally a working class city with some middle-class neighborhoods, and is home to a relatively young community, at an average 25 years of age, compared to the American median age of 35.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
19 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Los Angeles County, CaliforniaCudahy is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California. In terms of area, Cudahy is the second smallest city in Los Angeles County, after Hawaiian Gardens, but with one of the highest population densities of any incorporated city in the United States. It is part of the Gateway Cities region. Cudahy is populated predominantly by Latino non-citizen immigrants and has a population of 23,805 as of the 2010 U.S. Census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
19 per 100k · #7 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Alameda County, CaliforniaOakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port city, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the San Francisco Bay Area, the eighth most populated city in California, and the 45th largest city in the United States. With a population of 419,267 as of 2015, it serves as a trade center for the San Francisco Bay Area; its Port of Oakland is the busiest port in the San Francisco Bay, the entirety of Northern California, and the fifth busiest in the United States of America. The city was incorporated in 1852.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
18 per 100k · #8 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Los Angeles County, CaliforniaLancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of 2013, Lancaster was the 31st largest city in California. Lancaster is part of a twin city complex with its southern neighbor Palmdale and together they are the principal cities within the Antelope Valley region and California’s High Desert.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
16 per 100k · #9 highest murder rate in California
Located in
Solano County, CaliforniaVallejo oh; Spanish: ) is a waterfront city in Solano County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Vallejo is geographically the closest North Bay city to the inner East Bay, so it is sometimes mistakenly associated with that region. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is the tenth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the largest in Solano County. Vallejo sits on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay, 30 miles north of San Francisco, the northwestern shore of the Carquinez Strait and the southern end of the Napa River, 15 miles south of Napa. The city is named after General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, a native Californio, leading proponent of California’s statehood, and one of the first members of the California State Senate; the neighboring city of Benicia is named for his wife, Francisca Benicia Carrillo de Vallejo.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
16 per 100k · #10 highest murder rate in California
Located in
San Joaquin County, CaliforniaStockton is the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. State of California. Stockton was founded by Captain Charles Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after Robert F. Stockton, and it was the first community in California to not have a name of Spanish or Native American origin. The city is located on the San Joaquin River in the northern San Joaquin Valley and had an estimated population of 320,554 by the Caifornia department of finance for 2017. Stockton is the 13th largest city in California and the 63rd largest city in the United States. It was named an All-America City in 1999, 2004, 2015 and again in 2017.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
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Where California’s murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of California
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 California for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 217 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 Blythe. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in California. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In California
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Murders | Murders/100K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blythe | 18,064 | 5 | 28 |
| 2 | Susanville | 11,646 | 3 | 26 |
| 3 | Clearlake | 16,410 | 4 | 24 |
| 4 | Hawaiian Gardens | 13,172 | 3 | 23 |
| 5 | Compton | 89,564 | 18 | 20 |
| 6 | Cudahy | 21,401 | 4 | 19 |
| 7 | Oakland | 435,042 | 81 | 19 |
| 8 | Lancaster | 164,012 | 29 | 18 |
| 9 | Vallejo | 121,795 | 20 | 16 |
| 10 | Stockton | 319,069 | 51 | 16 |
| 11 | Marysville | 12,616 | 2 | 16 |
| 12 | Banning | 32,325 | 5 | 15 |
| 13 | Reedley | 26,201 | 4 | 15 |
| 14 | Port Hueneme | 20,969 | 3 | 14 |
| 15 | Antioch | 117,675 | 16 | 14 |
| 16 | Bell | 31,353 | 4 | 13 |
| 17 | Pismo Beach | 7,910 | 1 | 13 |
| 18 | Woodlake | 7,970 | 1 | 13 |
| 19 | Temple City | 34,359 | 4 | 12 |
| 20 | Coachella | 44,131 | 5 | 11 |
| 21 | Tulare | 71,689 | 8 | 11 |
| 22 | San Bernardino | 224,283 | 25 | 11 |
| 23 | Palm Springs | 45,406 | 5 | 11 |
| 24 | Arroyo Grande | 18,179 | 2 | 11 |
| 25 | Lemon Grove | 27,559 | 3 | 11 |
| 26 | Paradise | 9,809 | 1 | 10 |
| 27 | Carson | 89,767 | 9 | 10 |
| 28 | Rio Vista | 10,191 | 1 | 10 |
| 29 | Hawthorne | 81,941 | 8 | 10 |
| 30 | Yucca Valley | 21,630 | 2 | 9 |
| 31 | Corcoran | 21,831 | 2 | 9 |
| 32 | Desert Hot Springs | 33,749 | 3 | 9 |
| 33 | Baldwin Park | 67,791 | 6 | 9 |
| 34 | Commerce | 11,464 | 1 | 9 |
| 35 | San Fernando | 23,173 | 2 | 9 |
| 36 | Sacramento | 526,670 | 45 | 9 |
| 37 | Azusa | 47,647 | 4 | 8 |
| 38 | Pomona | 143,726 | 12 | 8 |
| 39 | Covina | 47,940 | 4 | 8 |
| 40 | Long Beach | 444,232 | 37 | 8 |
| 41 | Rosemead | 48,740 | 4 | 8 |
| 42 | Woodland | 61,177 | 5 | 8 |
| 43 | Alameda | 74,458 | 6 | 8 |
| 44 | Lynwood | 62,089 | 5 | 8 |
| 45 | Lindsay | 12,449 | 1 | 8 |
| 46 | Richmond | 113,418 | 9 | 8 |
| 47 | Hesperia | 100,850 | 8 | 8 |
| 48 | Victorville | 140,309 | 11 | 8 |
| 49 | Hayward | 153,419 | 12 | 8 |
| 50 | Sanger | 26,245 | 2 | 8 |
| 51 | California City | 13,418 | 1 | 7 |
| 52 | Merced | 96,077 | 7 | 7 |
| 53 | National City | 54,915 | 4 | 7 |
| 54 | East Palo Alto | 27,663 | 2 | 7 |
| 55 | Highland | 55,936 | 4 | 7 |
| 56 | McFarland | 14,008 | 1 | 7 |
| 57 | Red Bluff | 14,329 | 1 | 7 |
| 58 | Los Angeles | 3,796,352 | 264 | 7 |
| 59 | Inglewood | 101,399 | 7 | 7 |
| 60 | Bellflower | 73,883 | 5 | 7 |
| 61 | Bakersfield | 416,120 | 28 | 7 |
| 62 | Apple Valley | 74,764 | 5 | 7 |
| 63 | La Mesa | 60,352 | 4 | 7 |
| 64 | Redding | 92,468 | 6 | 6 |
| 65 | Atwater | 32,093 | 2 | 6 |
| 66 | Moraga | 16,438 | 1 | 6 |
| 67 | Whittier | 83,186 | 5 | 6 |
| 68 | Pleasant Hill | 33,539 | 2 | 6 |
| 69 | Berkeley | 117,400 | 7 | 6 |
| 70 | West Hollywood | 33,928 | 2 | 6 |
| 71 | El Monte | 102,088 | 6 | 6 |
| 72 | Huntington Park | 51,054 | 3 | 6 |
| 73 | Yuba City | 68,200 | 4 | 6 |
| 74 | Fresno | 546,722 | 32 | 6 |
| 75 | Coalinga | 17,290 | 1 | 6 |
| 76 | San Juan Capistrano | 34,620 | 2 | 6 |
| 77 | Palmdale | 158,983 | 9 | 6 |
| 78 | Colton | 53,153 | 3 | 6 |
| 79 | La Puente | 36,056 | 2 | 6 |
| 80 | Monrovia | 36,365 | 2 | 5 |
| 81 | Pinole | 18,310 | 1 | 5 |
| 82 | Gardena | 57,584 | 3 | 5 |
| 83 | Napa | 76,888 | 4 | 5 |
| 84 | Orinda | 19,314 | 1 | 5 |
| 85 | Pico Rivera | 58,318 | 3 | 5 |
| 86 | Stanton | 39,059 | 2 | 5 |
| 87 | San Mateo | 99,929 | 5 | 5 |
| 88 | Hanford | 60,208 | 3 | 5 |
| 89 | Santa Cruz | 61,346 | 3 | 5 |
| 90 | Santa Fe Springs | 20,534 | 1 | 5 |
| 91 | Santa Ana | 310,304 | 15 | 5 |
| 92 | Visalia | 146,090 | 7 | 5 |
| 93 | Rancho Cordova | 83,622 | 4 | 5 |
| 94 | San Leandro | 84,200 | 4 | 5 |
| 95 | American Canyon | 21,199 | 1 | 5 |
| 96 | Folsom | 86,152 | 4 | 5 |
| 97 | El Centro | 43,550 | 2 | 5 |
| 98 | Santa Monica | 88,948 | 4 | 4 |
| 99 | South Gate | 89,223 | 4 | 4 |
| 100 | San Francisco | 802,856 | 35 | 4 |
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 217 California cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In California For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in California 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 California are Blythe, Susanville, Clearlake, Hawaiian Gardens, Compton, Cudahy, Oakland, Lancaster, Vallejo, and Stockton.
