Nashville

Is Nashville safe?

For most visitors, yes, with some real caveats. The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) counted 74 homicides in 2025, down from 102 a year earlier, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association. That is about 10 per 100,000 people: well below New Orleans and Chicago, but more than twice Boston's rate. The city's open data suggest 2026 is lower again, with 24 homicide cases in the first nine months against 42 a year before.

The violent crime rate is the bigger worry. The FBI puts it at 962 per 100,000 in 2025, almost three times the national rate and higher than Philadelphia's. Most of that violence happens in residential neighbourhoods, not on Broadway. What visitors meet more often is car crime, drunken trouble and some of the most dangerous roads we track. We score Nashville 61.

Downtown and Lower Broadway

Lower Broadway is the centre of a visit: a few blocks of honky-tonks and rooftop bars, open past midnight. To see how much crime reaches that area, we counted MNPD's 2025 open-data incidents inside a box of about 2 by 2 km from the Gulch to the Cumberland River. MNPD's open data list 55 homicide cases for 2025, fewer than the 74 killings in its official count, and only one or two of them were inside the box.

Lesser violence is another matter. The box held 87 to 130 of the city's 834 robberies and 202 to 347 aggravated assaults, between a tenth and a sixth of all robberies. The range is wide because MNPD rounds locations to about 100 metres, and many incidents fall on the box edges. Treat these as rough counts, not official figures. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary's advice for the US fits Nashville well: violent crime rarely affects tourists, but try not to walk through quieter areas alone, especially at night.

Gallup's 2025 survey found that 71% of Americans feel safe walking alone at night where they live, and only 58% of women. The Gulch, Midtown and 12 South are busy and fine in the evening. After the bars close, use a ride app from a busy corner rather than walking back to a hotel on the edge of downtown.

Car break-ins and theft

Property crime is high. The FBI's figures give Nashville 3,873 property crimes per 100,000 people in 2025, two and a half times the US average of 1,552. MNPD's open data list about 7,500 car break-ins and 4,350 vehicle thefts in 2025, which makes a parked car the most likely way for a visitor to lose something. Break-ins in the first nine months of 2026 were down by about a third, but the numbers are still large.

• Leave nothing in sight in a car, including shopping bags and charging cables. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns not to leave passports in rental cars.
• Use a staffed hotel or event garage rather than a surface lot.
• On Broadway, keep your phone in a front pocket and your bag closed.

The roads are the bigger risk

Nashville's roads kill more people than its gunmen. MNPD's crash data record 112 traffic deaths in Nashville-Davidson County in 2025 and 111 in 2024, about 15.6 per 100,000 people, a rate close to New Orleans and more than four times Chicago's count for city streets, which leaves out its expressways. At least 27 of the dead in 2025 were pedestrians. The toll for 2026 is similar, at 87 deaths to the end of October.

MNPD's records show where the danger is. Over 2023 to 2025, about 30 people died in crashes on Murfreesboro Pike, with Gallatin Pike and Nolensville Pike next among the surface roads, and dozens more on I-24, I-40 and I-65. These are wide, fast roads where crossings are far apart. If you are walking, cross only at signals, and do not walk along the big pikes at night. If you plan to drink on Broadway, leave the car at the hotel.

Tornadoes and floods

Middle Tennessee is tornado country. Just after midnight on 3 March 2020, an EF-3 tornado with winds of about 165 mph crossed North Nashville, Germantown, half a mile from downtown, and East Nashville, according to the National Weather Service. It killed 5 people on its 60-mile track and injured 220; two of the dead were in Five Points, caught outside after leaving a bar.

Flooding is the other big hazard. On 1 and 2 May 2010, 13.57 inches of rain fell at Nashville's airport, more than double the previous two-day record, and the floods killed 18 people across Middle Tennessee.

The air is fairly clean. The EPA's two valid monitors in the county averaged 8.3 and 8.7 µg/m³ of fine particlesPM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary over 2023 to 2025, just under the US standard, with the higher one beside a busy road. Medical care is good but expensive: the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary notes that some US hospitals ask visitors for a deposit on admission.

How to stay safe in Nashville

• Stay downtown, in the Gulch or in Midtown, and use ride apps between neighbourhoods at night.
• Turn on emergency alerts on your phone and learn where the safe interior room is in your hotel during storm season.
• Do not drive after drinking, and treat multi-lane roads as hazards when on foot.
• Buy travel insurance with full medical cover.

For healthcare costs and entry rules, see our United States page.

How we scored it

Health and environment (83) is Nashville's strongest factor, with air just under the federal standard. Traffic safety (42) is the weakest, with more than 110 road deaths a year. Violent crime (58) sits near the top of the band for cities with 10 to 25 homicides per 100,000Homicide rateThe number of people killed on purpose each year for every 100,000 residents. It is the most comparable crime figure between countries.More in the glossary; if 2026 ends near its current pace, the score will rise. Theft (57) is held down by car crime.