St. Paul’s violent crime rate is more than double than the rest of the state clocking in at 651 violent crimes for every 100,000 people. On May 15 of 2019, there were 190 incident reports alone including robbery, rape, burglary, and domestic aggravated assault.
The overall crime rate of St. Paul is 54 percent higher than the national average and the city safer than only 10 percent of all US cities. If you are a resident of St. Paul, you have a 1 in 24 chance of falling victim to any crime.
The poverty rate of St. Paul sits at 20.4 percent whereas the rest of the state is about 10.5 percent.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has found through numerous studies that “neighborhoods with higher poverty rates tend to have higher rates of violent crime.”
The city of St. Paul is also seeing a high number of retailer vacancies due to high taxes and strict regulation. The state of Minnesota as a whole has also been ranked as the least friendly tax state in 2018.
A number of factors play into determining why St. Paul has been ranked as one of the worst US cities to live in and it is clear that major changes must take place to reverse this downward trend.
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Megan Olson
Megan Olson is a 2020 graduate of the University of Minnesota with degrees in political science and history. She works in public affairs in addition to serving on the Legislative Advisory Council for School District 196. She is also on the school board for FIT academy, a charter school in Apple Valley.
