If I said that I had found numbers to show you how likely you are to get murdered in Missouri, you would probably assume that's a bad thing. It really isn't. I'll try to show you that despite the bad rap the Show Me State gets for violent crime, it might not be as bad as you thought.

Get our free mobile app

For such a fun subject as this, I try to pull resources from as many different places as possible. Yes, the fun reference is sarcasm. The most helpful site I found was Uncovered which lists unsolved murders in Missouri and also the annual rate of people who have had their lives ended by others.

So how likely am I to get murdered in Missouri?

The short answer is "not very", but I'm guessing you'd like something more specific. Uncovered said that between "1980 and 2019, there were approximately 23,023 homicides in Missouri". Yes, that's a lot. But, compared to the population, it's not that scary. They say the "homicide rate in Missouri was approximately 9.3 per 100,000 inhabitants". Translation? That means for every 100,000 people you could hypothetically have in an admittedly very large room, only 9 1/3 would get expired. How do you kill 1/3rd of a person? Let me think about that.

Don't forget that it makes a big difference where you happen to be in Missouri to determine how likely you are to end up on the wrong side of a murder. If you're in a large metro area (looking at you, St. Louis), you're in much more danger than in a small Missouri town (other than maybe the Bootheel).

The Scary Stories of 10 Maine Multiple Murderers & Their Victims

Let's explore some of the darkest stories from Maine's criminal history.

More From KICK FM, #1 For New Country