Chattanooga ranks #18 for burglaries in the nation

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – While burglaries have been dropping in general over the last few years, that’s not true for a lot of southern cities.

The website Porch.com has been crunching FBI stats to find out the burglary clusters in the U.S. and we’re on their list.

Over the last decade, larcenies have dropped by 20% nationwide while burglaries were cut in half.

But Chattanooga is well above those averages, according to their analysis.

We have double the average number of burglaries as the nation, and almost three times as many larceny thefts for our population here.

That’s enough to put Chattanooga as #18 on the national list for mid-sized cities.

Knoxville is slightly worse at #17.

Memphis is #1 for major cities (Nashville #21).

The analysis found that in Chattanooga, there is an average of 839 burglaries per 100,000 residents each year, compared to 422 per 100,000 people at the national level.

The South and Northwest rank the worst for burglaries and larcenies per thousand people, while the Northeast is best.

The research shows that thieves target homes over businesses, both night and day.

They steal cash and jewelry over all other items.