Crime Rate in Kentucky (2025)
The FBI-based Crime Index for 2 cities in Kentucky, plus the statewide average. Scores run 0–100 (higher = safer) and are built from FBI Crime Data Explorer reports for 2025.
Crime Index
Limited city-level coverage: agencies covering only 13% of Kentucky's large-city population reported city-level detail for 2025 (50% of large cities). The statewide index above uses Kentucky's full FBI totals; treat the city breakdown as partial — see the methodology.
Crime trend in Kentucky
Reported crime by offense
Statewide rates per 100,000 residents vs the US average.
Each bar is scaled to the US average for that offense — the dashed line marks 1×. Bars past it run above the national norm; hover a row for detail.
Violent crime
- Kentucky
- 2.8 /100k · 128 total
- US average
- 4.1 /100k
- Kentucky
- 34.1 /100k · 1,573 total
- US average
- 35.2 /100k
- Kentucky
- 29.7 /100k · 1,367 total
- US average
- 47.9 /100k
- Kentucky
- 146 /100k · 6,726 total
- US average
- 228 /100k
Property crime
- Kentucky
- 169 /100k · 7,768 total
- US average
- 187 /100k
- Kentucky
- 907 /100k · 41,804 total
- US average
- 1,099 /100k
- Kentucky
- 192 /100k · 8,856 total
- US average
- 192 /100k
- Kentucky
- 7.2 /100k · 333 total
- US average
- 9.4 /100k
How Kentucky compares
Kentucky against the US average for 2025.
| Metric | Kentucky | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Crime Index (higher = safer) | 79B | 73C |
| Violent crime /100k | 213 | 315 |
| Property crime /100k | 1,276 | 1,487 |
| Homicide /100k | 2.8 | 4.1 |
| Total reported /100k | 1,488 | 1,802 |
Grade shown per index band (88–100 = A … 0–29 = F). Rates are reported offenses per 100,000 residents.
All 2 cities in Kentucky
Ranked safest to most dangerous by Crime Index.
Protecting yourself in Kentucky
Worried about the numbers above? Compare local providers, estimate costs, and explore the right kind of coverage.
Security guides for Kentucky
Kentucky Security Guard & Company License: Requirements & How to Verify (2026)
Hiring security in Kentucky? Here's who regulates it, what a company and its guards must be licensed to hold, how armed guards are permitted, and how to verify a license yourself in minutes.
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How Much Does a Security Guard Cost? (2026 US Pricing Guide)
Unarmed guards typically run $20–$35 an hour and armed guards $35–$75 — but the number on your quote is built from local wages, insurance, and coverage hours, and it varies by 50% across states. Here's how security pricing actually works in 2026, state by state, and how to avoid overpaying.
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How to Hire a Security Guard Company: A Step-by-Step Guide (2026)
Hiring security is easy to get wrong — the cheapest bid is often the riskiest. This step-by-step guide walks you through vetting a licensed company the right way, from license checks and state-by-state training standards to the questions that separate pros from pretenders.
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How to Verify a Security Company's License (State-by-State, 2026)
There is no federal security license in the US — every state runs its own registry, and a legitimate company must be in it. Here's exactly how to check, with a state-by-state table of licensing agencies, credentials, insurance minimums, and official lookups.
Read guideNo area has zero risk
A high Crime Index score means lower reported crime relative to other US cities — it is not a guarantee of safety. Reported crime is not the same as actual crime. Research on the gap between crime that occurs and crime that gets reported to police — often called the "dark figure" of crime — estimates that roughly 40% of violent crime and about a third of property crime go unreported each year. Every index built on official statistics, including this one, necessarily undercounts real crime. That gap is exactly why homicide — the offense with the smallest dark figure — anchors the calculation instead of a more commonly reported but less reliable category like theft.
Scores on this page reflect FBI-reported data for 2025. See the full methodology →
Limited data coverage: The FBI's 2021 transition to NIBRS-only reporting caused a sharp, temporary drop in nationwide participation, and some large states still lag in agency coverage for the most recent data years. When less than 60% of an area's population is covered by agencies that reported to the FBI for the data year, we flag that area as having limited data coverage, show the note on the page, and de-emphasize it in ranking landers rather than presenting an incomplete picture as if it were a complete one.
Louisville is covered at the neighborhood level (it isn't in the FBI city ranking, because its department reports below the population threshold). Explore its neighborhoods: