The Little Rock metro area, the 81st-largest in the US, is home to 758,600 residents; Little Rock itself is the capital and largest city of Arkansas · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in the Little Rock area?
Violent crime is high in the Little Rock area: a B, with more violent crime than the neighborhoods where 78% of Americans live. Assaults make up 94% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. The city of Little Rock itself grades D for violent crime.
B
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 652 of 1,000More violent crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
22% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than the Little Rock area as a whole, and 78% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. The Little Rock area scores 652.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more violent crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its violent crime with the people who spend time there, on one national scale, from green for the least to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy downtown or nightlife strip can show red while the homes around it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a solid connection. Compare high speed internet in Little Rock, AR at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Little Rock area, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out about violent crime in the Little Rock area
Robberies run high in Upper Baseline & Wakefield. In this part of south Little Rock, they run at more than double the rate in the rest of Little Rock.
Aggravated assaults run high for a metro area with a B for violent crime. The Little Rock area has 6.8 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a US metro area graded B for violent crime, the figure is 2.9.
Where violent crime is lowest and highest in the Little Rock area
Violent crime changes a lot from one part of the Little Rock area to the next: 72% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 22% live in areas graded D or F. Violent crime grades across the Little Rock area run from A+ to F.
72%22%
A or B 72%C 6%D or F 22%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
6South End, southeastAggravated assaults run about 40% higher here than in the rest of Little Rock.F13
7Oak Forest, Stephens & Boyle Park, centralAggravated assaults run at more than double the rate in the rest of Little Rock.F0
8Downtown Little Rock & Central High, eastAggravated assaults run at about double the rate in the rest of Little Rock.F0
9Upper Baseline & Wakefield, southAggravated assaults run about 60% higher here than in the rest of Little Rock.F0
Neighborhood areas of the city of Little Rock, ranked by violent crime CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer). Each one combines several of the smaller areas on the map.
Cities and towns in the Little Rock metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by violent crime CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Is violent crime going up in the Little Rock area?
Reported violent crime in the Little Rock area peaked in 2021 and has fallen 15% since, back near its 2019 level. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 7.9 to 8.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). Violent crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Little Rock areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Little Rock area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Little Rock area
Violent, US
2016
-4%
+4%
2017
+2%
+4%
2018
-6%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
+19%
+4%
2021
+28%
+6%
2022
+15%
+5%
2023
+14%
+2%
2024
+9%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in the Little Rock area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Little Rock area has about 28 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about double the rate for the US as a whole and 39% more than Arkansas.
All violent crime
Assaults
Robbery
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. Violent crime here includes simple assaults, which the FBI's violent crime rate leaves out.
Assault is the most common violent crime in the Little Rock area, about 94% of the total.
Each CrimeGrade™ here compares a violent crime with the people who spend time in an area, not only the people who live there. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when violent crime happens in the Little Rock area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Little Rock area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Little Rock area, 59% of aggravated assaults happen at a home, against 53% nationally. Robberies happen most often at stores and businesses: 41% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Robbery
Stores and businesses (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (59%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
Violent crime in the Little Rock area and nearby metro areas
Of the 10 metro areas closest to the Little Rock area, 9 have less violent crime. The Jackson area and the Tulsa area have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Little Rock area. Beside each violent crime CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Little Rock area has more violent crime than 95% of them.
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, one sets the Little Rock area apart: it has 5% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less robbery, yet robbery runs higher here than that would suggest.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery.5% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 93% of Americans in metro areas
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the Little Rock area: D- (6 of 100).1 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 81% of Americans in metro areas
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What violent crime costs the Little Rock area
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs the Little Rock area about $2.17 billion a year, or $2,867 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $456 million, or $601 per resident.
Billed cost of violent crime per resident, per year
How the cost breaks down
Pain and suffering are about 79% of that full cost.
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$148 million
$195
Rape
$31 million
$41
Robbery
$21 million
$28
Assault
$257 million
$338
Total
$456 million
$601
How CrimeGrade™ works
The violent crime CrimeGrade™ covers murder, rape, robbery and assault, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most, on one scale for the whole country.
It weighs each violent crime against the people who spend time in an area, so a busy downtown is graded on its workers and visitors as well as its residents.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. These figures cover the whole Little Rock metro area. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
