Do you live in one of the most dangerous cities in New Hampshire?
We all watch the news and see reports on Facebook of the latest crimes that happen in our hometowns. But it can be hard to tell at a big picture level how dangerous our town actually is.
No one wants to feel unsafe, and statistically speaking, odds are that where you live is most likely relatively safe. In order to help the good people of New Hampshire — and anyone looking to move to New Hampshire — know just how close they are to danger, we took data from the annual FBI report and did some serious analysis.
So what is the most dangerous city in New Hampshire? After analyzing 69 cities in New Hampshire, Laconia takes the top spot as the most dangerous city in New Hampshire based on the most recent FBI data.
For a detailed explanation of the data and analysis we used in creating this ranking, read on.
Or learn more about the safest places in New Hampshire.
If you’re looking for something more national, check out the most dangerous cities in America or the most dangerous states in America.
For more New Hampshire reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In New Hampshire
- These Are The 10 Best Counties To Live In New Hampshire
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In New Hampshire
Graphing The Most Dangerous And Safest Places In New Hampshire
The 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In New Hampshire For 2019
Laconia takes 1st because of its 3rd place finish for violence.
Located in central New Hampshire, 30 miles north of Concord, Laconia experienced rise in violent crime between 2015-17.
This left residents with a 1 in 215 chance of being the victim of violence and a 1 in 29.3 chance of being the victim of theft or arson in 2017.
Another city on the eastern edge of the state, Rochester is the 2nd most dangerous city in New Hampshire overall.
While violent crime dropped, the improvement was completely nullified when 2017’s property crime statistics were even higher than recent years.
Located in the southeastern corner of the state, on the Atlantic coast, Plymouth ranks 3rd for its danger.
In 2011, Plymouth wouldn’t have made this list, but a whopping increase in violent crime between 2015-17 changed that.
In 2017, residents faced a 1 in 300 chance of being the victim of violence, which would put Plymouth at 6th for the year in New Hampshire.
Located in south-central New Hampshire, Manchester is the largest city in the state, as well as the largest city in northern New England.
While the city has been named one of the most affordable in the region by several sources, its status as the 4th most violent city in the state might mar that fact.
Between 2015-17, violent crime went up, leaving residents with a 1 in 148 chance of being the victim of violence in 2017; that’s considerably higher than most places on the list.
The city of Manchester is a beautiful city. It has great places to eat and shop.
My favorite place is the Mall of NH. There are a lot of nice shops there. I also enjoy the downtown area.
Located on the eastern edge of New Hampshire, bordering Maine, Somersworth has the smallest area of any city in the state.
The 10 sq. mile Somersworth saw a total of 346 property crimes in 2017, which calculates out to a 1 in 34.1 chance of being a victim of theft.
Somersworth ranked 5th for violent crime.
I have been a resident of Somersworth, NH for nearly three years now. I *chose* to live here, for 1,000 reasons that do not fit these narrow-minded metrics. However, I will not take issue with that. What I will dissect is the text written here about my chosen home.
According to the chatter weve read on forums, this ranking is valid. People complain about drug dealing, s*x clubs and other nefarious behavior. Fact is, Somersworth is the second most dangerous city you can live in New Hampshire.”||||-“Chatter we’ve read on forums.” Is this the scientific research that you speak of- Nice.
“Theres a lot of Section 8 housing here, and apparently, you have to stay away from certain areas of downtown.There was a murder in town in 2013, and you have a 1 in 25 chance of being the victim of a robbery, most likely a car or home break in. Yikes.”
I love the scientific correlation between Section 8 and rampant crime. Gosh, those Section 8 tenants should just be dropped off into the ocean and the world would be a better place. Oh shoot – that’s in Portsmouth. G*d forbid someone who was down on their luck wander a toe over into the precious mecca of everything awesome and beautiful. ||||”The fact remains there are far better options if you want to commute into Portsmouth.”
Speak of the devil! Well, you know life would have many far better options if the entire populous of Somersworth received a 500% pay grade increase. Perhaps instead of fleeing the treacherous wastelands described here, those shiny new tax dollars could go into making Somersworth shiny and beautiful.”
From 2015-17, Lebanon experienced an enormous jump in instances of violent crime, leaving residents with a 1 in 339 chance of being the victim of violence in 2017.
Property crime also went up during this period, meaning that, if trends continue, Lebanon will climb this list in no time.
Very little crime, good schools. Traffic at it worst is mild.
Excellent hospitals. good restaurants. Fair theaters and nice parks
Littleton, located in Grafton County, is the 7th most dangerous and 8th most violent city in New Hampshire.
Violent crime has remained high from 2015-17, during which time property crime fell by only small amounts.
Located in the southwestern corner of the state in Cheshire County, Keene has the 5th worst rate of property crime in New Hampshire.
Instances of property crime went up between 2015-17, with 2017’s rate being 1 in 34.4.
Violent crime also went up during this time period to 16th worst overall, which didn’t quite get Keene into the top ten most violent cities in the state.
Plenty of schools for education, parks, bike paths. Events live music in summer
Panhandlers, no public restroom. Broken sidewalks and curbs. Potholes galore.
Franklin ranks relatively poorly in both categories of crime in New Hampshire.
That left Franklin’s residents with a 1 in 291 shot of being the victim of violence in 2017. Additionally, it ranked 17th for property crime.
Taught at a camp here. Kids seemed sweet and generally interested in learning. Town, however, was shockingly run down and there is a high population of low-lifes. I didn’t even realize places like this exist in NH.
The beach in seems to be frequented by some serious scum bags. Also door to rest room opens inwards and HAS NO HANDLE ON THE INSIDE!
Located on the western edge of New Hampshire in Sullivan County, Claremont hasn’t experienced much of a change in its crime statistics recently.
Its relatively poor violent crime statistics went up between 2015-17, while property crime fell by a very small amount to 269 occurrences.
If a person is looking to move to a state for a growing family, NH is probably not for them. Only those of us with professional occupations can even get a decent job here, and then nowhere near the pay youd get elsewhere. Hubby and I moved to Colebrook when we each got out of the Air Force we only stayed there a year, as that place didnt even have a national store chain of any kind. We then moved to Claremont, where we raised our kids for the next 10 years. I am a nurse, hubby was a lab tech at the time, so finding jobs was very easy. We love that our children grew up with great schools, clean neighborhoods, and nice people. I feel I should mention that were a multiracial family, but never got nasty looks, etc. for it.
How Is Your Town In ?
How we determined the most dangerous cities in New Hampshire for 2019?
Every year the FBI release two crime datasets, a preliminary dataset limited to the biggest cities in the country, followed by a more detailed release at the end of the year.
For our analysis, we focused on the JUST released 2017 data, specifically the 2017 Crime In The United States Report. We will update the results when data becomes available in September 2019.
So what criteria did we use? Have a look:
- Violent Crimes Per Capita
- Property Crimes Per Capita
In order to make the analysis as apples to apples as possible, we only considered cities over 5,000 in population. That left us with 69 cities in New Hampshire.
We then ranked each city from 1 to 69 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the most dangerous for the particular criteria.
Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.
Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in New Hampshire — Laconia.
Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in New Hampshire.
Locking It All Up In New Hampshire
The latest FBI crime data shows that Laconia ranks as the most dangerous city in New Hampshire for 2019.
We want to point out again that there’s still safes places in Laconia and that this isn’t a comment on the people that live there. So please don’t beat us up.
If you’re curious enough, here are the safest cities in New Hampshire:
- Nottingham (Pop. 5,046)
- Atkinson (Pop. 6,876)
- Sandown (Pop. 6,368)
For more New Hampshire reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In New Hampshire
- These Are The 10 Best Places To Retire In New Hampshire
- These Are The 10 Richest Cities In New Hampshire
- 10 Safest Places In New Hampshire
- 10 Worst Places To Live In New Hampshire
Where Are The Most Dangerous Cities In New Hampshire?
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laconia | 16,616 |
| 2 | Rochester | 30,441 |
| 3 | Plymouth | 6,303 |
| 4 | Manchester | 110,655 |
| 5 | Somersworth | 11,795 |
| 6 | Lebanon | 13,577 |
| 7 | Littleton | 5,871 |
| 8 | Keene | 23,386 |
| 9 | Franklin | 8,444 |
| 10 | Claremont | 12,893 |
No Mention of any relations to drugs, which is the reason for the rankings being so high
The only reason my hometown of laconia even registers on this list is the fact that bike week is held here every year. Our population doubles from tourists and everyone gets drunk and stupid.
The biggest reason laconia is on here is because of the drug problem, along with unemployment and lazy people on disability that dont need it. Dont blame bike when most of the crime happens the rest of the year not during bike week.
Yah okay , Born and raised in Laconia. Crime that happens on “THAT” week is done mostly by the people who live in the area. Dad’s a police officer.
Keene? Where the State College is? Surely you jest
You obviously missed Pittsfield. Property & Violent crime are high due to the fact that when people are released from the NH State Prison and the NH State Hospital, they generally go to Concord, Pembroke (Suncook), Franklin and “Pittsfield”.