Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Texas?
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 Texas 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 173 cities in the Lone Star State with over 5,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in Texas? The city with the highest murder rate in Texas is Center with 39 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in Texas with highest number of murders? The city in Texas with the highest number of murders is Houston with 320 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Texas ranked. There were ‘only’ 173 cities in Texas where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 195 places had no murder.
39 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in Texas
Located in
Shelby County, Texas
Center is a city in Shelby County, Texas. The population was 5,193 at the 2010 U.S. Census. It is the county seat of Shelby County. It was named for its location near the center of Shelby County, not its location in Texas; it is near the Louisiana border.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
38 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in Texas
Data | Movers
38 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in Texas
34 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in Texas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
33 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in Texas
Jacinto City is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States, east of the intersection of Interstate 10 and the East Loop of Interstate 610. Jacinto City is part of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area and is bordered by the cities of Houston and Galena Park. The population was 10,553 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
27 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in Texas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
25 per 100k · #7 highest murder rate in Texas
Located in
Lampasas County, Texas
Lampasas is a city in Lampasas County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,681 at the 2010 census. It is the seat of Lampasas County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
21 per 100k · #8 highest murder rate in Texas
Located in
Orange County, Texas
Orange is a city in Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 18,595. It is the county seat of Orange County, and is the easternmost city in Texas. Located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, Orange is 113 miles from Houston and is part of the BeaumontPort Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. Founded in 1836, it is a deep-water port to the Gulf of Mexico.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
21 per 100k · #9 highest murder rate in Texas
Located in
Wilbarger County, Texas
Vernon is a city in Wilbarger County, Texas, United States. It is the county seat, and as of the 2010 Census had a population of 11,002.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
20 per 100k · #10 highest murder rate in Texas
Located in
Nolan County, Texas
Sweetwater is a municipality in and the seat of Nolan County, Texas, United States. It is 236 miles southeast of Amarillo and 181 miles west of Fort Worth. The population was 10,906 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
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Where Texas’s murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Texas
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 Texas for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 173 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 Center. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Texas. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In Texas
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Murders | Murders/100K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Center | 5,153 | 2 | 39 |
| 2 | Bullard | 5,241 | 2 | 38 |
| 3 | Sansom Park Village | 5,282 | 2 | 38 |
| 4 | Brookshire | 5,866 | 2 | 34 |
| 5 | Jacinto City | 9,154 | 3 | 33 |
| 6 | Nolanville | 7,392 | 2 | 27 |
| 7 | Lampasas | 8,045 | 2 | 25 |
| 8 | Orange | 19,050 | 4 | 21 |
| 9 | Vernon | 9,704 | 2 | 21 |
| 10 | Sweetwater | 10,180 | 2 | 20 |
| 11 | Breckenridge | 5,126 | 1 | 20 |
| 12 | Gilmer | 5,184 | 1 | 19 |
| 13 | Giddings | 5,345 | 1 | 19 |
| 14 | Port Lavaca | 11,112 | 2 | 18 |
| 15 | Rockdale | 5,676 | 1 | 18 |
| 16 | Childress | 5,783 | 1 | 17 |
| 17 | Edna | 6,017 | 1 | 17 |
| 18 | Webster | 12,094 | 2 | 17 |
| 19 | Crockett | 6,274 | 1 | 16 |
| 20 | Gladewater | 6,313 | 1 | 16 |
| 21 | Bridgeport | 6,719 | 1 | 15 |
| 22 | Alvarado | 6,729 | 1 | 15 |
| 23 | Lancaster | 40,486 | 6 | 15 |
| 24 | Hempstead | 6,921 | 1 | 14 |
| 25 | Big Spring | 21,249 | 3 | 14 |
| 26 | Houston | 2,319,160 | 320 | 14 |
| 27 | Jacksonville | 14,552 | 2 | 14 |
| 28 | Dallas | 1,321,502 | 180 | 14 |
| 29 | Alton | 22,140 | 3 | 14 |
| 30 | Hidalgo | 14,910 | 2 | 13 |
| 31 | Beaumont | 111,320 | 14 | 13 |
| 32 | Lake Dallas | 7,982 | 1 | 13 |
| 33 | Humble | 16,076 | 2 | 12 |
| 34 | Killeen | 161,667 | 20 | 12 |
| 35 | Richland Hills | 8,235 | 1 | 12 |
| 36 | Brownfield | 8,569 | 1 | 12 |
| 37 | Temple | 96,862 | 11 | 11 |
| 38 | Graham | 8,853 | 1 | 11 |
| 39 | Liberty | 8,937 | 1 | 11 |
| 40 | Hondo | 8,948 | 1 | 11 |
| 41 | Denison | 26,977 | 3 | 11 |
| 42 | Pecos | 9,154 | 1 | 11 |
| 43 | Lake Jackson | 27,644 | 3 | 11 |
| 44 | Port Arthur | 55,397 | 6 | 11 |
| 45 | Longview | 83,771 | 9 | 11 |
| 46 | Brownwood | 18,782 | 2 | 11 |
| 47 | Aubrey | 9,572 | 1 | 10 |
| 48 | Alvin | 29,144 | 3 | 10 |
| 49 | Woodway | 9,768 | 1 | 10 |
| 50 | La Marque | 20,004 | 2 | 10 |
| 51 | Raymondville | 10,100 | 1 | 10 |
| 52 | Angleton | 20,474 | 2 | 10 |
| 53 | Crowley | 20,490 | 2 | 10 |
| 54 | Freeport | 10,506 | 1 | 10 |
| 55 | Kennedale | 10,635 | 1 | 9 |
| 56 | Bellmead | 10,657 | 1 | 9 |
| 57 | Stephenville | 22,231 | 2 | 9 |
| 58 | Wichita Falls | 102,762 | 9 | 9 |
| 59 | Texas City | 58,130 | 5 | 9 |
| 60 | Corpus Christi | 316,108 | 27 | 9 |
| 61 | San Antonio | 1,514,458 | 127 | 8 |
| 62 | Amarillo | 203,039 | 17 | 8 |
| 63 | El Campo | 11,972 | 1 | 8 |
| 64 | Marshall | 24,382 | 2 | 8 |
| 65 | San Juan | 36,819 | 3 | 8 |
| 66 | Bastrop | 12,388 | 1 | 8 |
| 67 | Tyler | 111,714 | 9 | 8 |
| 68 | Levelland | 12,499 | 1 | 8 |
| 69 | Cleburne | 37,953 | 3 | 8 |
| 70 | Duncanville | 38,939 | 3 | 8 |
| 71 | Elgin | 13,276 | 1 | 8 |
| 72 | Fort Worth | 997,476 | 74 | 7 |
| 73 | Henderson | 13,531 | 1 | 7 |
| 74 | Irving | 257,460 | 19 | 7 |
| 75 | Port Neches | 13,561 | 1 | 7 |
| 76 | Kilgore | 13,572 | 1 | 7 |
| 77 | Seabrook | 13,687 | 1 | 7 |
| 78 | Baytown | 83,639 | 6 | 7 |
| 79 | Hereford | 14,696 | 1 | 7 |
| 80 | Tomball | 14,885 | 1 | 7 |
| 81 | Azle | 14,961 | 1 | 7 |
| 82 | Austin | 984,613 | 65 | 7 |
| 83 | South Houston | 15,696 | 1 | 6 |
| 84 | Mount Pleasant | 16,038 | 1 | 6 |
| 85 | Nacogdoches | 32,177 | 2 | 6 |
| 86 | Cedar Hill | 48,911 | 3 | 6 |
| 87 | Pampa | 16,445 | 1 | 6 |
| 88 | Huntsville | 49,446 | 3 | 6 |
| 89 | Groves | 16,590 | 1 | 6 |
| 90 | Canyon | 16,609 | 1 | 6 |
| 91 | Lufkin | 34,218 | 2 | 6 |
| 92 | Greenville | 34,343 | 2 | 6 |
| 93 | Addison | 17,367 | 1 | 6 |
| 94 | Galveston | 53,100 | 3 | 6 |
| 95 | Waco | 146,270 | 8 | 5 |
| 96 | La Porte | 37,572 | 2 | 5 |
| 97 | Lubbock | 269,900 | 14 | 5 |
| 98 | Midland | 140,303 | 7 | 5 |
| 99 | Universal City | 20,121 | 1 | 5 |
| 100 | Forney | 40,484 | 2 | 5 |
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 173 Texas cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In Texas For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in Texas 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 Texas are Center, Bullard, Sansom Park Village, Brookshire, Jacinto City, Nolanville, Lampasas, Orange, Vernon, and Sweetwater.
