These Are The 10 Most Dangerous Places In Georgia


Watch your back when you go into one of these Georgia cities.

The most dangerous place in Georgia is obviously Atlanta, right?

It’s the biggest place in the state, so it must be dangerous.

Well, actually no, it’s not the most dangerous place in Georgia and it’s not even in the top ten. Well barely.

Instead of relying on speculation, we dug into the FBI crime data in order to identify the most dangerous places in Georgia. The result is the following list of top ten most dangerous:

  1. College Park
  2. East Point
  3. Americus
  4. Union City
  5. Douglas
  6. Brunswick
  7. Cordele
  8. Tifton
  9. Griffin
  10. Monroe

Atlanta came in at number 11. To find out why, continue on.

How We Determined The Most Dangerous Places In Georgia

While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we didn’t want to rely on speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI’s last three years of reporting.

Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report which summarizes the number of property crimes and violent crimes in each city per year.

Violent crimes are defined as rapes, murders, robberies and aggravated assaults.

While we had data on every single place in the state, we only analyzed places with populations of more than 10,000 people as of 2013, which is the last year the report was available.

This left us with a total of 71 places in Georgia to rank.

Finally, we made 2013 factor more heavily than 2012, and 2012 more heavily than 2011, since more recent crimes are a bigger factor in determining how dangerous a place is now.

If any places tied, we used the violent crime rank as a tiebreaker.

You can see our overall ranking at the bottom of the post. Click here to see the complete data set.

We must note that this report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments. It simply states where crimes occurred most frequently.

1. College Park

Population: 14,871

Violent Crime Rank: 1
Property Crime Rank: 1

College Park, where crime happens in Georgia.

The city took the top spot for both violent crimes per capita and property crimes per capita over the course of the past three years.

It’s important to remember that the FBI bases its crime data on where the crimes occurred and the police department for College Park covers places Clayton and Fulton County associated with the city and not just the city proper.

That being said, Ludacris, 2 Chainz, and Jung Joc all came from College Park and they don’t sing about rainbows and butterflies

2. East Point

Population: 36,172

Violent Crime Rank: 5
Property Crime Rank: 2

East Point comes in second on our list for the most dangerous places in Georgia. Just southwest of Atlanta, the city beats its bigger neighbor when it comes to crime.

Residents of East Point have a 1 in 8.49 chance of being the victim of a crime. For reference, the most dangerous place in Virginia had about a 1 in 15 chance of being the victim of a crime.

East Point ranks as the second highest city for property crime per capita which contributes to its high chance of crime.

3. Americus

Population: 16,190

Violent Crime Rank: 2
Property Crime Rank: 8

Americus may be the third most dangerous place in Georgia, but it’s the second most prone to violent crimes.

With .014 violent crimes per capita (or 140 per 10,000 people), only College park came in at a higher rate.

So while Americus is the county seat of Sumter County, it’s also the the location where the most crimes occurred in the County.

4. Union City

Population: 20,826

Violent Crime Rank: 7
Property Crime Rank: 3

Union city ranked high on our list of the most dangerous places in Georgia because of its outsized property crime rate for a city of its size.

Unlike the rest of the country, Union City has actually seen a rise in crime, both violent and property, over the past three years.

As one City-Data user put it, “Union City is so-so at best.”

5. Douglas

Population: 11,892

Violent Crime Rank: 8
Property Crime Rank: 5
One of the smaller places on the list, Douglas still competes when it comes to crime.

The seat of Coffee County, the city gets some of a caffeine rush from property crime, for which it ranks 5th overall in Georgia.

So while it has things to do and the cost of living isn’t bad, Douglas gets an F when it comes to crime.

6. Brunswick

Population: 15,709

Violent Crime Rank: 4
Property Crime Rank: 12

Like many port cities we have looked at, Brunswick ranks highly for the occurrence of crime. In particular, violent crime rates in Brunswick stick out for being the fourth worst in Georgia.

There were 162 violent crimes in Brunswick, but that’s down from 251 violent crimes in 2011.

A City Data user says, “I am 22-years-old and DO NOT recommend Brunswick for a single person looking to get out there and have fun and meet people.” Probably because going out there leads to crime.

7. Cordele

Population: 11,358

Violent Crime Rank: 12
Property Crime Rank: 4

Cordelle ranks as the 7th most dangerous place in Georgia according to the FBI crime data and our analysis.

The property crime rate is the bigger drag on the city relative to violent crimes. There were 847 property crimes in 2013 and a resident had about a 1 in 13 chance of being the victim of a property crime.

Overall, it scores as one of the least safe places in Georgia according to NeighborhoodScout.

8. Tifton

Population: 16,781

Violent Crime Rank: 9
Property Crime Rank: 11

Tifton is another county seat that also represents its county as one of the most dangerous places in Georgia.

Coming in at 8th on our list, Tifton mixes (relatively) middle of the pack violent crime and property crime without (relatively) excelling in either one.

We say relative because while its crime rates are middle of the pack for the top ten, they are still high for Georgia as a whole.

9. Griffin

Population: 23,313

Violent Crime Rank: 11
Property Crime Rank: 9

Representing Spalding County, Griffin breaks into our top ten most dangerous places in Georgia coming in at number nine.

Griffin’s ranking for violent crime and property were the reverse of Tifton with property crime being the higher of the two this time.

Griffin is a bit off the beaten path about 50 miles south of Atlanta. Yet it still manages its fair share of crime.

10. Monroe

Population: 13,364

Violent Crime Rank: 15
Property Crime Rank: 7

Monroe comes in at number ten on our list, just edging out Atlanta.

Monroe’s violent crime rates are much better than the other cities in our top 10, 10% better than the closest competitor (Cordele).

However, its property crime rate kept the city within the top 10. And like every other city in our top 10, it scored an F when it comes to crime.

Closing the books

So when you pull away bias and opinions, that’s the set of top ten most dangerous places in Georgia that the data delivers.

You rest easy knowing that Atlanta isn’t in the top ten. At least for now.

Most Dangerous Places In Georgia

City Population 2013 Violent Crime Rank Property Crime Rank Danger Score Rank
College Park 14871 1 1 1 1
East Point 36172 5 2 3.5 2
Americus 16190 2 8 5 3
Union City 20826 7 3 5 4
Douglas 11892 8 5 6.5 5
Brunswick 15709 4 12 8 6
Cordele 11358 12 4 8 7
Tifton 16781 9 11 10 8
Griffin 23313 11 9 10 9
Monroe 13364 15 7 11 10
Atlanta 451020 3 20 11.5 11
Albany 77365 6 21 13.5 12
Macon 91177 18 10 14 13
Jesup 10289 24 6 15 14
Vidalia 10652 14 17 15.5 15
Moultrie 14554 21 13 17 16
Douglasville 31347 17 18 17.5 17
Dublin 16217 22 14 18 18
Conyers 15465 23 15 19 19
Rome 36098 19 22 20.5 20
Waycross 14206 30 16 23 21
Bainbridge 12575 16 31 23.5 22
Riverdale 15610 20 28 24 23
Marietta 58893 13 36 24.5 24
Thomasville 18451 31 19 25 25
Columbus 201165 27 23 25 25
Powder Springs 14350 10 41 25.5 27
Warner Robins 71614 26 26 26 28
Carrollton 25164 25 33 29 29
Covington 13416 35 25 30 30
Lilburn 12455 41 24 32.5 31
Lagrange 30723 38 27 32.5 31
Winder 14291 32 37 34.5 33
Norcross 15834 29 42 35.5 34
Hinesville 35311 34 40 37 35
Cartersville 19835 47 30 38.5 36
Statesboro 30201 45 32 38.5 36
Gainesville 35111 43 34 38.5 36
Calhoun 15866 49 29 39 39
Fairburn 13938 37 45 41 40
Villa Rica 14307 44 38 41 40
Kingsland 16393 28 54 41 40
Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan 235200 36 46 41 40
Milledgeville 19927 46 39 42.5 44
St. Marys 17701 33 53 43 45
Athens-Clarke County 120122 40 47 43.5 46
Snellville 19260 54 35 44.5 47
Newnan 34453 39 50 44.5 47
Smyrna 53080 42 52 47 49
Dalton 33475 52 44 48 50
McDonough 22713 50 48 49 51
Decatur 20001 53 49 51 52
Lawrenceville 29821 51 51 51 52
Dunwoody 47531 62 43 52.5 54
Fayetteville 16216 55 55 55 55
Perry 15002 48 65 56.5 56
Sandy Springs 101180 56 57 56.5 56
Loganville 10699 58 56 57 58
Pooler 21069 57 58 57.5 59
Woodstock 25515 61 59 60 60
Duluth 28350 59 61 60 60
Suwanee 16539 63 60 61.5 62
Roswell 95373 60 63 61.5 62
Richmond Hill 10841 65 62 63.5 64
Alpharetta 63442 67 64 65.5 65
Kennesaw 31289 64 68 66 66
Canton 24042 66 67 66.5 67
Grovetown 12525 69 66 67.5 68
Peachtree City 34706 68 69 68.5 69
Milton 35751 71 70 70.5 70
Johns Creek 84093 70 71 70.5 70
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.