Murders Per Capita By City In Washington For 2025


The cities with the most murder per capita in Washington are Toppenish and Centralia for 2025.

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

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

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 Washington 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 49 cities in the Evergreen State with over 5,000 residents.

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

Cities With Highest Murder Rate In Washington Map

Cities With Highest Murder Rates In Washington

  1. Toppenish
  2. Centralia
  3. Shelton
  4. Kelso
  5. Colville
  6. Pacific
  7. Tacoma
  8. Kent
  9. Burien
  10. Ephrata

What city has the highest murder rate in Washington? The city with the highest murder rate in Washington is Toppenish with 92.5 murders per 100,000 people.

What is the city in Washington with highest number of murders? The city in Washington with the highest number of murders is Seattle with 68 murders.

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Washington ranked. There were ‘only’ 49 cities in Washington where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 70 places had no murder.

For more reading on the Evergreen State check out:

The 10 Murder Capitals Of Washington For 2025

1. Toppenish

Toppenish Location In Washington

Toppenish, WA

Source: Wikipedia User Jared DeJong | CC BY 2.0

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 8,645
Murders: 8 (9th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 92.5 (Most)
More on Toppenish: Data

2. Centralia

Centralia Location In Washington

Centralia, WA

Source: Wikipedia User Steven Pavlov | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 19,031
Murders: 6 (13th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 31.5 (2nd Most)
More on Centralia: Data

3. Shelton

Shelton Location In Washington

Shelton, WA

Source: Wikipedia User Ian Poellet | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 11,010
Murders: 3 (18th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 27.2 (3rd Most)
More on Shelton: Data

4. Kelso

Kelso Location In Washington

Kelso, WA

Source: Wikipedia User Ian Poellet (User:Werewombat) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 12,672
Murders: 3 (18th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 23.7 (4th Most)
More on Kelso: Data

5. Colville

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 5,066
Murders: 1 (38th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 19.7 (5th Most)
More on Colville: Data

6. Pacific

Pacific Location In Washington

Pacific, WA

Source: Wikipedia User Steven Pavlov | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 6,917
Murders: 1 (38th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 14.5 (6th Most)
More on Pacific: Data

7. Tacoma

Tacoma Location In Washington

Tacoma, WA

Source: Wikipedia User FlickreviewR 2 | CC BY-SA 2.0

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 222,828
Murders: 31 (2nd Most)
Murders Per 100k: 13.9 (7th Most)
More on Tacoma: Data

8. Kent

Kent Location In Washington

Kent, WA

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 133,312
Murders: 17 (4th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 12.8 (8th Most)
More on Kent: Data

9. Burien

Burien Location In Washington

Burien, WA

Source: Wikipedia User No machine-readable author provided. Wikidude775~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). | GFDL

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 50,227
Murders: 6 (13th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 11.9 (9th Most)
More on Burien: Data

10. Ephrata

Ephrata Location In Washington

Ephrata, WA

Source: Wikipedia User Publichall | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 8,468
Murders: 1 (38th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 11.8 (10th Most)
More on Ephrata: Data

Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Washington

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 Washington for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 49 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 Toppenish. It is our tenth time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Washington. We updated the list for 2025.

Most Dangerous Cities In America

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

If you’re looking at the places in Washington 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 Washington are Toppenish, Centralia, Shelton, Kelso, Colville, Pacific, Tacoma, Kent, Burien, and Ephrata.

For more Washington reading, check out:

Murder Rates By City In Washington

Rank City Population Murders Murders/100K
1 Toppenish, WA 8645 8 92.54
2 Centralia, WA 19031 6 31.53
3 Shelton, WA 11010 3 27.25
4 Kelso, WA 12672 3 23.67
5 Colville, WA 5066 1 19.74
6 Pacific, WA 6917 1 14.46
7 Tacoma, WA 222828 31 13.91
8 Kent, WA 133312 17 12.75
9 Burien, WA 50227 6 11.95
10 Ephrata, WA 8468 1 11.81
11 Federal Way, WA 96340 11 11.42
12 Lakewood, WA 62059 6 9.67
13 Auburn, WA 83779 8 9.55
14 Tukwila, WA 21191 2 9.44
15 Fife, WA 10693 1 9.35
16 Yakima, WA 96991 9 9.28
17 Seattle, WA 753786 68 9.02
18 Everett, WA 111566 10 8.96
19 Poulsbo, WA 12070 1 8.29
20 Newcastle, WA 12785 1 7.82
21 Spokane, WA 230648 18 7.8
22 Renton, WA 102742 8 7.79
23 Lake Forest Park, WA 12982 1 7.7
24 Moses Lake, WA 26169 2 7.64
25 Kennewick, WA 85138 6 7.05
26 SeaTac, WA 30098 2 6.64
27 Ellensburg, WA 18367 1 5.44
28 Mill Creek, WA 20791 1 4.81
29 Richland, WA 63816 3 4.7
30 Arlington, WA 21611 1 4.63
31 Marysville, WA 72936 3 4.11
32 Vancouver, WA 196159 8 4.08
33 Olympia, WA 55701 2 3.59
34 Lacey, WA 59545 2 3.36
35 Des Moines, WA 32180 1 3.11
36 University Place, WA 34504 1 2.9
37 Wenatchee, WA 35390 1 2.83
38 Mount Vernon, WA 35641 1 2.81
39 Spokane Valley, WA 109278 3 2.75
40 Longview, WA 37739 1 2.65
41 Issaquah, WA 38978 1 2.57
42 Redmond, WA 78496 2 2.55
43 Lake Stevens, WA 40229 1 2.49
44 Edmonds, WA 42474 1 2.35
45 Bremerton, WA 46342 1 2.16
46 Shoreline, WA 60149 1 1.66
47 Sammamish, WA 65062 1 1.54
48 Pasco, WA 80263 1 1.25
49 Bellingham, WA 94968 1 1.05
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.

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