The good news is that the national average is lower than most countries. The bad news is Louisiana's murder rate is more than twice the national average.

Five years of FBI files were used to find the highest and lowest murder rates in the country.

SafeWise used the report from the State of Safety to find the difference between what we perceive and what is reality as far as the murder rate is concerned. As it turns out, our perception that Louisiana was toward the top if not at the top of the list is indeed reality.

These five states have a murder rate that is nearly twice the national average:

  1. Louisiana
  2. Mississippi
  3. Missouri
  4. Maryland
  5. Alabama

The national murder rate average is 4.9 murders per 100,000 people.

Louisiana's murder rate was 6.2 points ahead of the national average. Areas of the state that were topping the list are New Orleans-Metairie (17.6), Baton Rouge (11.6), Shreveport-Bossier City (9.6), and Lafayette (7.7).

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