Murders Per Capita By City In Illinois For 2025


The cities with the most murder per capita in Illinois are Posen and Chicago Heights for 2025.

By: Chris Kolmar | About RoadSnacks
Last Updated: October 1, 2025

Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Illinois?

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 Illinois 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 74 cities in the Prairie State with over 5,000 residents.

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

Cities With Highest Murder Rate In Illinois Map

Cities With Highest Murder Rates In Illinois

  1. Posen
  2. Chicago Heights
  3. Harvey
  4. Glenwood
  5. Decatur
  6. La Salle
  7. Melrose Park
  8. Collinsville
  9. Peoria
  10. Chicago

What city has the highest murder rate in Illinois? The city with the highest murder rate in Illinois is Posen with 56.6 murders per 100,000 people.

What is the city in Illinois with highest number of murders? The city in Illinois with the highest number of murders is Chicago with 499 murders.

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Illinois ranked. There were ‘only’ 74 cities in Illinois where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 197 places had no murder.

For more reading on the Prairie State check out:

The 10 Murder Capitals Of Illinois For 2025

1. Posen

Posen Location In Illinois

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,296
Murders: 3 (24th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 56.6 (Most)
More on Posen: Data

2. Chicago Heights

Chicago Heights Location In Illinois

Chicago Heights, IL

Source: Wikipedia User Dennisyerger84 | GFDL

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 26,018
Murders: 11 (6th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 42.3 (2nd Most)
More on Chicago Heights: Data

3. Harvey

Harvey Location In Illinois

Harvey, IL

Source: Wikipedia User davidwilson1949 | CC BY 2.0

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 19,264
Murders: 7 (7th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 36.3 (3rd Most)
More on Harvey: Data

4. Glenwood

Glenwood Location In Illinois

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 8,214
Murders: 2 (37th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 24.3 (4th Most)
More on Glenwood: Data

5. Decatur

Decatur Location In Illinois

Decatur, IL

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 68,301
Murders: 15 (4th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 22.0 (5th Most)
More on Decatur: Data

6. La Salle

Source: Public Domain

Overall SnackAbility

/10

Population: 9,353
Murders: 2 (37th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 21.4 (6th Most)
More on La Salle:

7. Melrose Park

Melrose Park Location In Illinois

Melrose Park, IL

Source: Wikipedia User Dennisyerger84 | GFDL

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 23,494
Murders: 5 (14th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 21.3 (7th Most)
More on Melrose Park: Data

8. Collinsville

Collinsville Location In Illinois

Collinsville, IL

Source: Wikipedia User Tristan Denyer20:57, 21 December 2005 | GFDL

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 23,799
Murders: 5 (14th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 21.0 (8th Most)
More on Collinsville:

9. Peoria

Peoria Location In Illinois

Peoria, IL

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 2.5

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 110,118
Murders: 21 (2nd Most)
Murders Per 100k: 19.1 (9th Most)
More on Peoria: Data

10. Chicago

Chicago Location In Illinois

Chicago, IL

Source: Flickr User ::RodrixParedes:: | CC BY 2.0

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 2,628,298
Murders: 499 (Most)
Murders Per 100k: 19.0 (10th Most)
More on Chicago: Data

Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Illinois

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 Illinois for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 74 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 Posen. It is our tenth time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Illinois. We updated the list for 2025.

Most Dangerous Cities In America

Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In Illinois For 2025

If you’re looking at the places in Illinois 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 Illinois are Posen, Chicago Heights, Harvey, Glenwood, Decatur, La Salle, Melrose Park, Collinsville, Peoria, and Chicago.

For more Illinois reading, check out:

Murder Rates By City In Illinois

RankCityPopulationMurdersMurders/100K
1Posen, IL5296356.65
2Chicago Heights, IL260181142.28
3Harvey, IL19264736.34
4Glenwood, IL8214224.35
5Decatur, IL683011521.96
6La Salle, IL9353221.38
7Melrose Park, IL23494521.28
8Collinsville, IL23799521.01
9Peoria, IL1101182119.07
10Chicago, IL262829849918.99
11Country Club Hills, IL15904318.86
12Troy, IL11235217.8
13East Alton, IL5639117.73
14Pontoon Beach, IL5811117.21
15Metropolis, IL5843117.11
16Alsip, IL18048316.62
17Pekin, IL31053516.1
18Waukegan, IL874121416.02
19Hazel Crest, IL12681215.77
20Calumet Park, IL6639115.06
21South Holland, IL20342314.75
22University Park, IL6966114.36
23La Grange, IL15599212.82
24Oak Brook, IL7964112.56
25DeKalb, IL40222512.43
26Alton, IL25025311.99
27Rockford, IL1458731711.65
28Rock Island, IL35883411.15
29Homewood, IL18418210.86
30Sauk Village, IL9422110.61
31Hoffman Estates, IL49843510.03
32Highland, IL9998110.0
33Crest Hill, IL2003229.98
34Wood River, IL1030919.7
35Park Forest, IL2062729.7
36Worth, IL1042319.59
37Manhattan, IL1077319.28
38Carbondale, IL2165929.23
39Freeport, IL2317728.63
40Rantoul, IL1202418.32
41Zion, IL2416228.28
42Streator, IL1216318.22
43Urbana, IL3859737.77
44Granite City, IL2692727.43
45Belleville, IL4082037.35
46Burbank, IL2798627.15
47Danville, IL2814927.11
48Bolingbrook, IL7413856.74
49Bradley, IL1515916.6
50Cicero, IL8045556.21
51Fairview Heights, IL1615616.19
52Franklin Park, IL1789115.59
53Champaign, IL8968755.57
54Hanover Park, IL3589925.57
55Sycamore, IL1869715.35
56Elgin, IL11247065.33
57Evergreen Park, IL1889015.29
58Romeoville, IL4024224.97
59Geneva, IL2116414.73
60Blue Island, IL2134414.69
61Springfield, IL11278154.43
62Glenview, IL4662324.29
63Oak Forest, IL2601613.84
64Lansing, IL2752513.63
65Des Plaines, IL5767223.47
66Joliet, IL14994053.33
67North Chicago, IL3038213.29
68O’Fallon, IL3205913.12
69Aurora, IL17671252.83
70Schaumburg, IL7514022.66
71Oak Park, IL5165511.94
72Palatine, IL6440711.55
73Arlington Heights, IL7409411.35
74Evanston, IL7441311.34
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

 Murder, Rankings

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *