20 Missouri Places Where Homeowners Face the Most Risk

At the most basic level when it comes to a home, people just want somewhere they can feel safe. If you live in Missouri, you have a lot of safe options, but there are also many cities where homeowners need to be especially cautious.

When you see lists of the most dangerous places in a state, it's important to understand what type of data you're being presented. In this case, I queried the databases of the FBI and also Open Crime specifically looking at property crime rates in Missouri. Based on the most recent full year of data which I believe was 2024, here are the 20 places in Missouri with the highest property crime rates:

• Branson — 6,016.0
• St. Louis — 5,706.9
• Bridgeton — 5,755.8
• Kansas City — 4,676.1
• Springfield — 4,184.7
• Joplin — 4,120.8
• St. Joseph — 3,850.9
• Grandview — 3,781.7
• Raytown — 3,737.4
• Sikeston — 3,625.4
• Independence — 3,523.7
• Ferguson — 3,498.7
• Sedalia — 2,635.0
• Rolla — 2,539.9
• Hazelwood — 2,520.5
• Cape Girardeau — 2,456.3
• Overland — 2,181.3
• Lebanon — 2,055.6
• Kirksville — 1,934.5
• Bellefontaine Neighbors — 2,747.7

Plain Crime has an even more detailed breakdown of why property crime in Branson has become such a prevalent issue:

• 14,760 burglaries
• 81,596 larceny-thefts
• 24,882 motor-vehicle thefts
• 121,238 total property crimes

I was honestly shocked that Branson property crime rates would dwarf those of the big metro areas like parts of St. Louis and Kansas City. Could this be because of the many transient visitors that southwestern Missouri attracts also include criminal elements? There's no way to drill down exactly what the root of the issue is, but the fact remains that Branson and these other Missouri places that made this list are locations where homeowners need to be aware of the risk.