The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Minnesota

The 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In Minnesota For 2024

The home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, Bemidji gained some fame for being the location of Netflix’s Fargo.

It turns out, the crime dramedy actually let Bemidji off easy when it comes to crime rates, seeing as the real city ranks as the most dangerous in Minnesota. Folks in Bemidji had a 1 in 12 chance of being the victim of a property crime over 2022, so watch your wallet, or you’ll be saying “oh, jeez” before you know it.

On top of that, Bemidji had the third highest violent crime rate in Minnesota, with an aggravated assault going down more than once a week, on average.

When it comes to the Twin Cities, Minneapolis comes in as the naughtier sibling. Take our advice and buddy up in the City of Lakes, because, with an average of almost one murder a week, Minneapolis has the highest murder rate in Minnesota.

On top of that, Minneapolis had the 11th highest rate of rape cases in the state. Overall, residents had a 1 in 81 shot of being the victim of a violent crime.

Even your home is unsafe in Minneapolis, considering the city had the highest burglary rate statewide.

Still, if you stick to one of Minneapolis’s safest neighborhoods and use good judgment, you shouldn’t have to worry.

Like its Twin City, St. Paul is a victim of simply being a big city. Hey, when you have loads of fun neighborhoods and great things to do, more people are going to wander through and inflate your crime numbers.

Still, Minnesota’s capital city has come crime numbers that are hard to ignore. Like residents having a 1 in 130 chance of being the victim of a violent crime over a year. Or about two murders a month going down, which works out to the fifth highest murder rate in Minnesota.

And while property crime isn’t too bad in St. Paul, it still has higher rates of car theft and arson than Minneapolis, with 3,189 stolen cars and 196 arson cases recorded in 2022.

Even though Waite Park only occupies the #4 position on this list, it has the second highest overall crime rate in Minnesota, outstripping the national average by 300%.

How’d that happen? Well, Waite Park has the second highest property crime rate by a significant margin. On average, two cars a month are stolen in Waite Park — quite often for a city of just 8,349.

On the bright side, most of the other property crimes are just larcenies, which makes sense for a spot with so much retail. Still, we didn’t rank it among the worst places to live in Minnesota for no reason.

Here’s another Minneapolis suburb that makes this list. Fridley sits just north of the big city. The community is built along the Mississippi River, which gives it some charming features, like parks by the water. This being Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes, you’ll find a lake in town too — Moore Lake.

Just don’t go strolling by the river late at night. Robberies represent a real problem in the community, with 28 such crimes in a population of 31,095. The rates for car thefts and larcenies are also high.

The largest population center in central Minnesota, St. Cloud has gone up 2 places on this list since last year, so things are looking up. Unfortunately, it’s still one of the poorest cities in Minnesota, so the root causes of criminal activity persist.

You might need to stop by at one of St. Clouds peaceful gardens to catch your breath, what with all the violent crime going down.

St. Cloud had the 18th highest rate of rape cases in Minnesota for 2022. Overall, residents had a 1 in 220 shot of being violently attacked.

So the other Brooklyn is just across the bridge from Manhattan — one of the most iconic urban areas in the country. Brooklyn Center sits just north of Minneapolis. Sure, that’s the largest metro area in Minnesota… but not quite the same thing.

Still, this suburb has its charms, from golf courses to parks along the Mississippi River. However, it also has its drawbacks. And, no, we aren’t talking about the arctic winters. Rather, Brooklyn Center has a high crime rate. This includes 191 car thefts and 68 robberies in a population of 32,094 people.

Poor Minneapolis. The area surrounding the city dominates this list. Here, yet again, sits another of the state’s most dangerous areas.

Roseville lies to the northeast of the city center, about 15 minutes from downtown. The community itself began building up in the 1940s and saw massive growth in the 1950s and 1960s. Lately, the area’s history has become more troubled. Violence remains relatively rare, but property crime rates have reached epidemic proportions. This includes 173 burglaries and 54 robberies in a population of 42,031. Roseville suffers a large number of car thefts as well.

Located just south of St. Paul, West Paul is a city of 21,113 jammed into five square miles. So it kind of makes sense that West St. Paul had the seventh highest property crime rate, with residents facing a 1 in 24 chance of having their stuff stolen or damaged.

Violent crime wasn’t so bad in West St. Paul, overall. However, the city did have the 78th highest murder rate. So don’t stay out late at St. Clair Park by yourself.

Brooklyn Park, a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, has earned a reputation as one of the state’s most dangerous places to live. With a population of 82,682, Brooklyn Park has experienced a concerning level of crime in recent years. The city recorded 315 violent crimes, including 2 murders, 60 rapes, 78 robberies, and 175 aggravated assaults in 2024.

These crime statistics paint a troubling picture of safety in Brooklyn Park. The high incidence of violent crime per capita, which stands at 380/100k, contributes to its ranking as the 17th most dangerous place to live in the state.

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