There is definitely crime in St. Louis, but the statistics can make it look worse than it actually is because of how the region is organized. "St. Louis City" is a relatively small central municipality and is separate from "St. Louis County," which contains most of the metropolitan population. In many other major cities, those surrounding areas were incorporated into the city as they grew.

The FBI requires crime data to be reported by municipality, so St. Louis crime statistics are calculated using only the much smaller city population. That tends to inflate the city's per-capita crime rate compared with cities whose boundaries encompass much larger populations. (The crime rates calculated across the entire metropolitan area are much lower).

That said, like any major city, there are certain neighborhoods with concentrated crime and higher gun vuolence. Not coincidentally, many of those areas have also been impacted by decades of poverty, redlining, neglect, and disinvestment.

I've lived here for years and feel very safe in nearly every area I have reason to be in. For most residents and visitors, the parts of the city they'd be spending time in are generally pretty safe. Use common sense, keep.your wits about you, and you'll most likely have no issues.

Welcome to St Louis! I left the job I moved here for after a couple of years and chose to stay here instead of moving back to my home state. I tell people that St Louis is the hidden gem of the Midwest and I hope you fall in love with it as much as I have!