If you asked most Wyomingites, they’d rather be a rodeo clown during High School Nationals in Gillette than drive thru Wyoming’s most dangerous places.
You’d think that the tenth largest state, not to mention the least populated state, would have enough room between its residents to keep everyone happy and virtually crime free. Well, folks, that’s not the case for Wyoming’s most dangerous places; and lucky for you, RoadSnacks created a list of the most dangerous place in Wyoming for 2020.
That’s right. Wyoming has some pretty dangerous places and we wanted to know just how dangerous, so we consulted the numbers. In total, we analyzed 25 cities. We looked at the FBI’s latest crime report for violent crime and property crime statistics for every place with over 2,000 residents. We discovered that while Wyoming is much safer than most of the USA in terms of violent crime, it does have a higher rate of property crime. It’s not lost on us that many of Wyoming’s fastest growing cities are also the state’s most dangerous. This is usually how it works. Law enforcement can’t keep up with demand these cities and the cowboys and cowgirls in these places are taking notice and taking advantage.
Wyoming’s most dangerous places are also facing problems like high unemployment and low wages. People, the cities that made our list have robberies happening in broad daylight; and pork packages in these places, don’t have a fighting chance. There are neighborhoods in these cities that you shouldn’t drive thru, ever, and there are areas that you definitely shouldn’t be in after dark.
We’re not saying that there aren’t little pockets of goodness in these Wyoming cities. There are neighborhoods and shopping centers in Wyoming’s most dangerous cities that are not ALL bad. We do, however, recommend that you take a look at our list below before you make any life changing decisions.
Many people ask why we make these lists. We produce lists like these to help protect the people who already live in Hawaii and the people thinking about moving to the Equality State. Heck, Wyoming’s 1,691 officers can’t be everywhere, so cities suffer.
And the place in Wyoming that is suffering the most? That would be, Cheyenne.
If you want to know where the rest of the most dangerous places in Wyoming are located, take a look at the list below; and if you don’t find what you’re looking for there, head to the bottom.
Learn more about the safest places in Wyoming.
If you’re looking for something more national, check out the most dangerous cities in America or the most dangerous states in America.
For more Wyoming reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In Wyoming
- These Are The 10 Best Counties To Live In Wyoming
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Wyoming
Graphing The Most Dangerous And Safest Places In Wyoming
The 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In Wyoming For 2020
Cheyenne is way out on Route 26 near Wyoming. If you’re passing through, lock your car doors. Residents here have a 1 in 25.1 chance of being the victim of a property crime, which is the second highest in the state.
Job growth is negative here, which isn’t a good sign. Crime is typically contained on the south end of town.
It was a very nice, quiet town. I had a hard time navigating – most of the cities and towns I have traveled to have a very intuitive layout, but not Cheyenne.
Lack of grocery stores close to I-25; it was very difficult to find what my family needed in terms of groceries due to the sparsity of stores.
Thermopolis experienced a rise in violent crime between 2017-2018.
Still, the 1 in 224 chance Thermopolis residents faced of being the victim of violence in 2018 is still lower than other places in the state.
Meanwhile, you have a 1 in 45.6 chance of being the victim of a property crime, making Thermopolis the 6th worst city in Wyoming with regards to theft and arson.
Evansville isn’t the worst in state in terms of either violent or property crime statistics, but bad rankings in each earn it the title of the 3rd most dangerous city in the Equality State.
The good news is that instances of property crime dropped between 2017-2018, but the bad news is that violent crime rose in the same time period.
That left Evansville residents with a 1 in 176 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in 2018, making the city the 1st most violent place in Wyoming.
Today, Riverton is the 4th most dangerous city in the state.
Unlike other cities on the list, Riverton has seen a recent boom in crime, with violent crime going up from 2017-2018, and property crime also going up.
Watch your wallet in Riverton, because there’s a 1 in 33.4 chance of being the victim of a property crime while you’re there.
Rawlins has the 8th worst property crime rate in the state.
Property crime rose between 2017-2018, leaving residents of Rawlins with a 1 in 51.5 chance of being the victim of theft or arson in 2018.
At least violent crime fell during this interval.
Casper is not the refuge that you might be expecting — it ranks as the 6th most dangerous city in Wyoming.
It has the 11th highest overall violent crime rate.
On the plus side, property crime ranks 4th in the state, meaning it’s not even in the top 10% of cities in Wyoming.
Put differently, property crime isn’t a problem to the same extent violent crime is in the city.
Crime in Powell has been heading in the right direction over the past few years, as both property and violent crimes have been on the decrease .
Powell residents have a 1 in 57.2 chance of being the victim of a property crime, good for 11th worst in the state. Additionally, they have a 1 in 379 chance of being the victim of a violent crime, 7th worst in Wyoming.
Gillette earns a 8th place ranking overall.
Between 2017-2018, violent crime and property crime increased, leaving Gillette residents with a 1 in 46.0 chance of being the victim of theft or arson in 2018.
Ive lived in Gillette since I was 11 years old. Over the past 14 years I have met some of the meanest, most ignorant, intolerable, and back stabbing people Ive ever met. Nobody here cares for anyone else but themselves, they hardly take care of the snow in town like they should worst drivers Ive ever seen, the m**h epidemic is absolutely outrageous, everyone I know is on it and cops dont do anything about dealers, the county 17 arrest page is full of arrests from traffic related incidents. The bullying in the schools, middle in particular, is the worst Ive ever seen. Theres a very clear line divided between the people whos parents work in coal or oil and have money and the ones who dont. The rich kids single out the poor or less well off kids, and torture and alienate them. Worst town Ive ever lived in, 0/10
Literally has one movie theatre, one kids arcade, and about 15 bars and thats it for recreation pretty much. Unless you count the stagnant pond they call the fishing lake which has a playground.
Cody ranks 9th in violent crime, but 14th overall in property crime to place as the 9th most dangerous city in Wyoming.
To put that in perspective, you have a 1 in 68.0 chance of being a victim of a property crime in Cody. That makes property crimes much more common in Cody than the safest city, Kemmerer.
Torrington almost escaped being included on this list, but being the 10th most violent city in the state kept it in the top ten most dangerous.
Residents of Torrington had a 1 in 191 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in 2018.
Property crime also went down to a 1 in 91.8 chance in 2017-2018, meaning, if the trends continue, Torrington may avoid this list altogether come next year.
How Is Your Town In ?
How we determined the most dangerous cities in Wyoming for 2020?
Every year the FBI release two crime datasets, a preliminary dataset limited to the biggest cities in the country, followed by a more detailed release at the end of the year.
For our analysis, we focused on the JUST released 2017 data, specifically the 2017 Crime In The United States Report. We will update the results when data becomes available in September 2019.
So what criteria did we use? Have a look:
- Violent Crimes Per Capita
- Property Crimes Per Capita
In order to make the analysis as apples to apples as possible, we only considered cities over 2,000 in population. That left us with 25 cities in Wyoming.
We then ranked each city from 1 to 25 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the most dangerous for the particular criteria.
Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.
Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in Wyoming — Cheyenne.
Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in Wyoming.
Locking It All Up In Wyoming
The latest FBI crime data shows that Cheyenne ranks as the most dangerous city in Wyoming for 2020.
We want to point out again that there’s still safes places in Cheyenne and that this isn’t a comment on the people that live there. So please don’t beat us up.
If you’re curious enough, here are the safest cities in Wyoming:
- Worland (Pop. 5,148)
- Glenrock (Pop. 2,584)
- Kemmerer (Pop. 2,761)
For more Wyoming reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Wyoming
- These Are The 10 Best Places To Retire In Wyoming
- These Are The 10 Richest Cities In Wyoming
- 10 Safest Places In Wyoming
- 10 Worst Places To Live In Wyoming
Where Are The Most Dangerous Cities In Wyoming?
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cheyenne | 64,178 |
| 2 | Thermopolis | 2,919 |
| 3 | Evansville | 3,001 |
| 4 | Riverton | 11,076 |
| 5 | Rawlins | 8,806 |
| 6 | Casper | 58,200 |
| 7 | Powell | 6,458 |
| 8 | Gillette | 30,659 |
| 9 | Cody | 9,935 |
| 10 | Torrington | 6,699 |
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