JD Vance called Chicago the murder capital of the USA. Is he right?

During the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance took a page from his running mate Donald Trump and verbally criticized Chicago.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of where Kamala Harris and Tim Walz held a campaign rally, he called Chicago the murder capital of the country and compared the city to a “third world country.”

“It's almost a joke to me that they held it in Chicago, which has become the murder capital of the United States of America thanks to very failed Democratic leadership,” Vance said, then shared a “little theory” that Democrats held the Democratic National Convention here so Walz could then claim to have served in a combat zone.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot decided to share her opinion with Vance on X (formerly Twitter): “The beautiful thing about not being mayor anymore is that I don't care who hears me telling this clown to shut up.”

Chicagoans are used to hearing exaggerated descriptions of the crime in their city, which has suffered under the nickname “Chiraq” since Chicago rapper King Louie's 2011 mixtape “Chiraq, Drillinois.”

Chicago is perhaps more associated with crime and violence than any other major city in America.

Crime has been a problem here for a long time. And it is probably the biggest challenge facing the city.

Chicago has led the nation in total murders for years. In some years, like 2018, Chicago had more murders than New York City and Los Angeles combined. But when it comes to murder rates, Chicago ranks 15th, based on 2023 statistics from the FBI and Chicago Police Department. Murder rates, or the number of murders per capita, are more useful than absolute numbers for understanding the likelihood that residents will be murdered.

Perhaps Vance should take a closer look at his own state when talking about cities struggling with violence. Two Ohio cities – Cleveland and Dayton – had higher murder rates than Chicago in 2023.

Of the 100 cities with the highest murder rates in the country, six are in Ohio (compared to three in Illinois). Only California (12) and Texas (11), both much larger than Ohio, had higher murder rates.

Chicago may also get a bad rap when it's portrayed as the nation's leading city in crime. When it comes to overall crime rates, excluding murders, several other cities fare better than Chicago.

In fact, the city ranked eighth in robbery rates in 2022 and did not make the top 20 in any other crime category, according to FBI crime data for America's largest cities.

Smaller cities like Memphis, St. Louis, Tacoma, Detroit and Cleveland scored highly in at least five categories. San Francisco, Milwaukee, Oakland and New Orleans made the top 10 in three categories for crime rates. And there were ten other cities that had top 10 scores in two categories.

Crime data also shows that the picture varies by neighborhood. Some Chicago neighborhoods have far more crime than others.

For example, from Jan. 1, 2020, to May 26, 2024, Austin's community area had 268 murders, the most in the city, according to crime data on the city's online data portal. However, the Mount Greenwood and O'Hare community areas had zero murders during that time period. And the Forest Glen, Hegewisch, Jefferson Park and Norwood Park community areas each had just one murder during that time period.