Safest Cities in Middle Tennessee: 2026 Crime Data by City

Nolensville is the safest city in Middle Tennessee. Based on 2024 FBI crime data released in September 2025, Nolensville reported roughly 50 violent crimes and 207 property crimes per 100,000 residents, which is about 88 percent below the national average. Brentwood, Spring Hill, Thompson’s Station and Franklin round out the safest tier, all of them well under half the national crime rate. Murfreesboro and Columbia run above the national average, and Nashville runs far above it.

I have sold homes across Williamson, Rutherford, Maury, Wilson and Davidson counties for years, and safety is the single most common question I get from families relocating here. The trouble is that the websites ranking these cities have never set foot in them. Below is the actual data, city by city, along with the part the aggregators leave out: why their rankings contradict each other, and what crime statistics genuinely cannot tell you about a street you are thinking of buying on.

Safest Cities in Middle Tennessee, Ranked by 2026 Crime Data

Every figure below is the rate per 100,000 residents from the 2024 FBI crime report, the most recent full year available. I have put every city on the same basis so the comparison is honest. For reference, the national averages are roughly 359 violent and 1,760 property crimes per 100,000 residents, or about 2,119 in total.

Is Franklin, TN Safe?

Yes. Franklin reported about 132 violent crimes and 943 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2024, putting its overall crime rate roughly 49 percent below the national average. Violent crime is about a third of the national figure, which for a city of roughly 90,000 people is genuinely low.

Here is the nuance no ranking site explains. Franklin’s property crime rate is noticeably higher than Brentwood’s or Nolensville’s, and buyers sometimes read that as a warning sign. It is mostly a retail effect. Cool Springs draws shoppers from across the region, and a large share of Franklin’s reported property offenses are thefts from vehicles and retail shoplifting in commercial corridors, not break-ins on residential streets. Crime is counted where it happens, not where the offender lives, so a regional shopping district inflates the per-resident rate of the city hosting it. The neighborhoods themselves, from Westhaven to Fieldstone Farms to the historic district downtown, are quiet.

Is Brentwood, TN Safe?

Brentwood is the safest larger city in Middle Tennessee and one of the safest in the country. It reported roughly 58 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2024, about 84 percent below the national average, with property crime around 730 and an overall rate about 63 percent below national. For a city of roughly 45,000 people, a violent crime rate under 60 per 100,000 is exceptional.

Two things drive it. Brentwood is almost entirely residential with large lots, minimal through traffic and very little commercial frontage, so it simply does not generate the retail and transient crime that inflates other cities. It also funds a large police department relative to its population. The tradeoff is cost. Brentwood is the most expensive municipality in the region, with a median well above $1.5 million, so the safety is real but it is priced in. If you are weighing it against neighboring towns, my Brentwood homes for sale page has current inventory.

Is Murfreesboro, TN Safe?

This is where I have to be straight with you. Murfreesboro is the one large Middle Tennessee city that runs above the national average. It reported roughly 420 violent crimes and 2,022 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2024, an overall rate about 15 percent above national. That is not a dangerous city by any reasonable standard, but it is not in the same tier as Franklin or Brentwood, and you should not let a ranking site tell you otherwise.

Context matters. Murfreesboro is home to Middle Tennessee State University and roughly 20,000 students, and it has grown faster than almost any city in the state. Large student populations and rapid growth both push reported crime up, and the numbers are trending the right way: violent offenses fell about 5 percent in 2024, robberies dropped over 10 percent, and the overall rate fell 16 percent from 2023. Murfreesboro is also the affordability story in this region, with a median far below Williamson County. Plenty of families make that trade knowingly, and the safe neighborhoods there are genuinely safe.

Is Spring Hill, Nolensville or Thompson’s Station Safe?

All three are very safe, and they are where most of my safety-driven buyers end up. Nolensville is the safest in the region at roughly 50 violent and 207 property crimes per 100,000, about 88 percent below national. Spring Hill reported around 164 violent and 499 property, roughly 69 percent below national, and it offers the most house per dollar of the three. Thompson’s Station comes in around 60 percent below national.

One honest caveat on Thompson’s Station. It does not report its own numbers to the FBI, so the figures you see published for it, including the ones in my table above, are estimates modeled from income, home values and poverty rates rather than counted offenses. That does not mean the town is unsafe. Everything I see on the ground says it is quite safe. It does mean you should treat that particular row as an approximation, which is exactly the kind of thing the ranking sites never disclose. These towns sit inside the Williamson County homes for sale market, which is the main reason families target them.

Why the Safety Rankings All Disagree With Each Other

If you have searched this topic already, you have noticed something strange. One site crowns Nolensville the safest city in Tennessee. Another ranks Brentwood 44th. A third leaves Thompson’s Station out entirely. They cannot all be right, and the reason they differ has nothing to do with how safe these places actually are.

Four things break these lists. First, FBI reporting is voluntary, and agencies are still finishing the transition to the newer NIBRS reporting system, so some departments submit partial years or nothing at all. Second, small towns have tiny denominators. In a town of 10,000 people, four extra reported incidents can swing the per-100,000 rate by dozens of points and move a city ten spots in a ranking. Third, several sites publish estimates as if they were counts, as with Thompson’s Station. Fourth, daytime population is ignored. Franklin’s rate is calculated against its residents, not against the far larger number of people who drive in to shop and work, which mechanically inflates it.

The practical takeaway: use these numbers to sort cities into broad tiers, not to split hairs between two towns three places apart on somebody’s list.

What Crime Statistics Cannot Tell You About a Neighborhood

City-level data is a blunt instrument. Every city on this list contains streets that are safer than its average and streets that are less safe, and no citywide number will show you which is which. Here is what I tell clients to do instead.

Pull the incident map, not the city average. The TBI Crime Insight portal lets you look at reported offenses by agency and area, and most local departments publish their own maps. Look at the specific subdivision, not the city. Then do the things data cannot capture: drive the street on a weekday evening and again on a Saturday morning, check whether the homes nearby are owner-occupied or rentals, look at how the yards and cars are kept, and see whether there is a through road that invites traffic or a single entrance that does not. Ask about the school zone, since attendance boundaries shape a neighborhood’s stability more than most buyers expect.

If you want help with any of that, call or text me at 615.480.5770. I will walk a specific street with you and tell you what I actually know about it, which is a different thing from what a national ranking site can generate from a spreadsheet.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the safest city in Tennessee?

Among Middle Tennessee cities, Nolensville has the lowest reported crime rate, at roughly 50 violent and 207 property crimes per 100,000 residents in the 2024 FBI data, about 88 percent below the national average. Brentwood is the safest larger city, with a violent crime rate around 58 per 100,000. Statewide rankings vary between publishers because FBI reporting is voluntary and small towns have very small sample sizes.

Is Franklin, TN safe?

Yes. Franklin’s overall crime rate is roughly 49 percent below the national average, with about 132 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Its property crime rate is higher than Brentwood’s largely because the Cool Springs retail district draws shoppers from across the region, and offenses are counted where they occur rather than where offenders live.

Is Murfreesboro, TN safe?

Murfreesboro is the one large Middle Tennessee city with a crime rate above the national average, roughly 15 percent higher overall, with about 420 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. It is not a dangerous city, and its numbers are improving, with violent offenses down about 5 percent and the overall rate down 16 percent from 2023. Its large university population and rapid growth both push reported figures up.

Which Nashville suburbs have the lowest crime?

Nolensville, Brentwood, Spring Hill, Thompson’s Station and Franklin all report crime rates 49 to 88 percent below the national average, and Mt. Juliet is about 47 percent below. Nashville itself runs roughly 166 percent above the national average, so the gap between the city and its Williamson County suburbs is substantial.

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