Best placesKentuckyViolent Crime Rate

Safest Counties (Lowest Violent Crime) in Kentucky (2026)

McCreary has the lowest violent crime rate of any county in Kentucky, at 15.3 per 100k, followed by Owen and Elliott. Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer (per-agency, 2018-2022 average), FBI CDE 2020-2024 avg. The full ranking of the top 25 counties is below.

Data updated 2024 - Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer (per-agency, 2018-2022 average)

Explore violent crime rate on the map

Safest counties for violent crime rate in Kentucky

Top 25 of 120 counties with data.

Ranked by violent crime rate (FBI Crime Data Explorer (per-agency, 2018-2022 average), FBI CDE 2020-2024 avg), lowest first.

Safest counties for violent crime rate in Kentucky
RankCountyValue
1McCreary15.3 per 100k
2Owen16.1 per 100k
3Elliott16.3 per 100k
4Knott19.9 per 100k
5Lewis19.9 per 100k
6Trimble21.0 per 100k
7Martin27.3 per 100k
8Spencer28.6 per 100k
9Metcalfe31.0 per 100k
10Breathitt31.0 per 100k
11Menifee31.2 per 100k
12Pike31.3 per 100k
13Jackson31.8 per 100k
14Cumberland32.1 per 100k
15Henry32.4 per 100k
16Wolfe33.0 per 100k
17Harlan33.9 per 100k
18Letcher35.0 per 100k
19McLean37.3 per 100k
20Bath37.4 per 100k
21Greenup38.7 per 100k
22Leslie38.7 per 100k
23Clinton39.6 per 100k
24Casey39.9 per 100k
25Magoffin41.5 per 100k

How this ranking works

This page ranks Kentucky counties by violent crime rate, sorted so the safest places appear first. Click any county to see its housing, schools, crime, and demographics in detail.

For violent crime rate, a lower value is generally more favorable, so the top of the list is the lowest. Want to weigh violent crime rate against schools, taxes, commute, and more at once? Use the live map to build a custom match.

Data comes from public sources. Source attribution and the exact data vintage are shown above and on the full map of violent crime rate.

Related

More Kentucky county rankings

Compare violent crime rate with everything else that matters on the live map.

Open the Map