Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Louisiana?
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 Louisiana 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 30 cities in the Pelican State with over 5,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in Louisiana? The city with the highest murder rate in Louisiana is Opelousas with 39 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in Louisiana with highest number of murders? The city in Louisiana with the highest number of murders is Shreveport with 47 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Louisiana ranked. There were ‘only’ 30 cities in Louisiana where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 9 places had no murder.
39 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Opelousas is a small city in and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies at the junction of Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190. The population was 22,860 at the 2000 census. Although the 2006 population estimate was 23,222, a 2004 annexation should have put the city’s population above 25,000. In the 2010 census, however, the population shrank to 16,634. Opelousas is the principal city for the Opelousas-Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 92,178 in 2008. Opelousas is also the third largest city in the Lafayette-Acadiana Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 537,947.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
39 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Ponchatoula is a small city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,559 at the 2010 census. Ponchatoula is known as the “Strawberry Capital of the World”. It is part of the Hammond Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
37 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. Its neighboring city is Pineville. In 2010, the population was 47,723, an increase of 3 percent from the 2000 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Iberia Parish, Louisiana
New Iberia is the parish seat of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is a small city located 30 miles southeast of Lafayette.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Iberville Parish, Louisiana
Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 7,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
30 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a small city and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the indigenous Natchitoches people.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
27 per 100k · #7 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Minden is a small city in and the parish seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States. It is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport in Caddo Parish. The population has been relatively stable since 1960, when it was 12,786. Minden is 51.7 percent African American.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
27 per 100k · #8 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third-largest city in the state of Louisiana and the 122nd-largest city in the United States. It is the seat of Caddo Parish and extends along the Red River into neighboring Bossier Parish. Bossier City is separated from Shreveport by the Red River. The population of Shreveport was 199,311 in 2010, and the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Area population exceeds 441,000. The Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks 111th in the United States, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
23 per 100k · #9 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
Bastrop is the largest city and the parish seat of Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 11,365 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 1,623 from the 12,988 tabulation of 2000. The population of Bastrop is 73 percent African American. It is the principal city of and is included in the Bastrop, Louisiana Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Monroe-Bastrop, Louisiana Combined Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
17 per 100k · #10 highest murder rate in Louisiana
Located in
Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcasieu Parish, it is a major industrial, cultural, and educational center in the southwest region of the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Louisiana’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Louisiana’s murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Louisiana
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 Louisiana for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 30 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 Opelousas. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Louisiana. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In Louisiana
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Murders | Murders/100K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opelousas | 15,263 | 6 | 39 |
| 2 | Ponchatoula | 7,784 | 3 | 39 |
| 3 | Alexandria | 42,933 | 16 | 37 |
| 4 | New Iberia | 26,653 | 9 | 34 |
| 5 | Plaquemine | 5,925 | 2 | 34 |
| 6 | Natchitoches | 16,945 | 5 | 30 |
| 7 | Minden | 11,050 | 3 | 27 |
| 8 | Shreveport | 175,092 | 47 | 27 |
| 9 | Bastrop | 8,792 | 2 | 23 |
| 10 | Lake Charles | 77,982 | 13 | 17 |
| 11 | Monroe | 46,290 | 7 | 15 |
| 12 | Lafayette | 121,471 | 18 | 15 |
| 13 | Gonzales | 14,259 | 2 | 14 |
| 14 | Ruston | 22,259 | 3 | 13 |
| 15 | Addis | 7,797 | 1 | 13 |
| 16 | Gretna | 16,788 | 2 | 12 |
| 17 | Scott | 8,917 | 1 | 11 |
| 18 | Bossier City | 62,750 | 7 | 11 |
| 19 | Jennings | 9,230 | 1 | 11 |
| 20 | Sulphur | 19,955 | 2 | 10 |
| 21 | Bogalusa | 10,252 | 1 | 10 |
| 22 | Kenner | 62,377 | 6 | 10 |
| 23 | Morgan City | 10,701 | 1 | 9 |
| 24 | Baker | 11,933 | 1 | 8 |
| 25 | West Monroe | 12,368 | 1 | 8 |
| 26 | Carencro | 13,985 | 1 | 7 |
| 27 | Broussard | 14,906 | 1 | 7 |
| 28 | Thibodaux | 15,562 | 1 | 6 |
| 29 | Zachary | 20,142 | 1 | 5 |
| 30 | Slidell | 28,449 | 1 | 4 |
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 30 Louisiana cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In Louisiana For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in Louisiana 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 Louisiana are Opelousas, Ponchatoula, Alexandria, New Iberia, Plaquemine, Natchitoches, Minden, Shreveport, Bastrop, and Lake Charles.
