The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In New Jersey

The 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In New Jersey For 2024

A resort city known for its casinos, beaches, and boardwalk, as well as inspiring the board of Monopoly, Atlantic City is also New Jersey’s most dangerous city.

If you watched Boardwalk Empire, you know that the Atlantic City we know today was founded on crime, and today it still has the highest overall crime rate in New Jersey.

People in Atlantic City had a 1 in 12 of being the victim of a property crime in 2022. And it isn’t all stolen poker winnings, either; the city also had the seventh highest murder rate in New Jersey.

Wildwood, a city in Cape May County, New Jersey, is ranked as the second most dangerous place to live in the state for 2024. In terms of violent crime, Wildwood has reported 55 incidents, including 7 robberies and 48 aggravated assaults. Property crime is also prevalent, with 339 reported incidents, including 28 burglaries.

Wildwood is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area and the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden combined statistical area. As a popular Jersey Shore resort destination, the city experiences a significant increase in population during the summer months, reaching up to 250,000 people. This influx of tourists leads to higher-than-expected per capita crime rates for the city’s residents.

Located on the Jersey Shore and part of the New York City metro area, Asbury Park raks as New Jersey’s third most dangerous place.

The overall crime rate in Asbury Park is more than three times as high as the statewide average and it’s telling that most of that comes from violent crime.

Residents had a 1 in 92 chance of being attacked, killed, or raped in 2022, so don’t let your guard down at the the boardwalk.

Millville is nowhere near as violent as Camden, but with a property crime rate that ranks as the eighth highest in the state, the smaller city actually has a higher total crime rate.

Make sure you’ve still got all your valuables spending time at one of Millville’s parks and make sure you keep your doors locked, or you’ll join the 1 in 25 residents who had their property stolen or damaged in 2022.

Located an hour south of Philadelphia, Bridgeton takes the fifth place position on our list of New Jersey’s most dangerous places.

While there might be bears and tigers at Bridgeton’s local zoo, but the real scary stuff is going down on Bridgeton’s streets, where violent crimes are the ninth most common statewide.

It’s also probably a good idea to lock all your doors and Bridgeton because the city had the tenth highest burglary rate in New Jersey for 2022.

Let’s be frank — Camden has a national reputation for violent crime and the numbers back up the stereotype in this case. Camden had the second most violent crime of anywhere in New Jersey for 2022 and the second highest murder rate.

To balance out this narrative a little, we should mention that Camden had 67 murders in 2012 and only 28 in 2022, so things are improving here.

Other types of crime are down in recent years as well and many look to Camden as a model for model for police reform.

To quote the Camden County Police Department Chief of Police, “I would qualify the statistics as progress and not success.”

The name “Woodbury” will fool you on two fronts at once. First, the “wood” part. This isn’t a tiny hamlet tucked into a forest enclave. Rather, it’s actually part of the greater Philadelphia metro area, located about 20 minutes from the center of the big city.

Meanwhile, the “bury” part is a little deceiving as well. Yes, this is the number 7 most dangerous place in New Jersey. But violence really isn’t its biggest problem — if you end up buried in Woodbury, it’s likely because of natural causes. Instead, you should be more afraid of property crime around here. The town of 10,108 people suffers the number 47 highest pace of burglaries in the state.

Absecon gets its name from a local tribe of Native Americans. Its located along the coast, in the southern part of New Jersey, potentially a scenic place to spend a summer day, with the town situated just a short 15-minute drive from the middle of Atlantic City.

Unfortunately, the resort atmosphere is shattered by a high crime rate. Violence remains relatively subdued in the community. But property crime poses a major threat. Absecon presents the number 20 rate of burglaries and the number 12 pace of larcenies in the state.

In Cumberland County, Vineland is the ninth most dangerous place to live in New Jersey for 2024. The city boasts a population of 61,110, but it’s plagued with a relatively high crime rate. With 280 reported violent crimes and 1,566 property crimes, the city’s safety statistics are concerning.

Vineland ranks 15th highest in violent crimes with 7 murders and 28 rapes reported. Property crimes rank as the 24th highest in the state.

New Jersey’s 5th most populous city, Elizabeth, also has the tenth highest crime rate in the state for 2024.

Violent crime is especially bad in Elizabeth, but the majority of the 644 crimes committed in 2022 were robberies or assaults.

Elizabeth has been inching its way up this list for the past couple of years while its northern neighbor Newark has been slowly achieving better and better crime numbers.

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