29 May 2026 · Updated 12 October 2026

A safe state with a theft problem.

Hawaiʻi is one of the safest states for violent crime, ranking #8 of 50 in 2025: 214 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, against a national median of 300.

States that have low violent crime are low on theft too. Not Hawaiʻi.

On property crime, Hawaiʻi ranks #35 of 50, at 1,682 per 100,000. Since 1960, Hawaiʻi has been the only state in the nation that has almost always been both: top tier on violent crime, the safest third of states, and bottom tier on property crime, the worst third.

Idaho is almost identical on violent crime, ranking #12, but has the lowest property-crime rate in the country: 625 per 100,000. Hawaiʻi’s rate is nearly three times higher.

The difference is due to tourism.

Idaho has nothing like Hawaiʻi’s visitor traffic. Hawaiʻi hosted an average of 229,000 visitors a day in 2025. Most of the state is rural, but property crime clusters where visitors do: Waikīkī and the resort corridors, where residents and tourists crowd the same blocks.

That also distorts the rate. Visitors are included in the crime count, but not in the resident population used to calculate the rate. So, the figure overstates the everyday risk to residents.

The crime itself is mostly opportunistic, larceny and car theft, not burglary.

Hawaiʻi’s property-crime rate fell about 47% between 2015 and 2025, from 3,185 to 1,682 per 100,000. Most of the drop came after 2022, when Hawaiʻi still ranked #45. Its rate has fallen 35% since then, one of the three largest drops of any state.