Rank | City
1 Ridgefield, CT
2 Bergenfield, NJ
3 Franklin, MA
4 Lexington, MA
5 Shrewsbury, MA
6 Zionsville, IN
7 Buffalo Grove, IL
8 Weston, FL
9 Lake in the Hills, IL
10 Billerica, MA
11 Colleyville, TX
12 Needham, MA
13 North Ridgeville, OH
14 Marshfield, MA
15 Parkland, FL
16 Keller, TX
17 Arlington, MA
18 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
19 Independence, KY
20 Harrison, NY
21 Greenwich, CT
22 Florence, AZ
23 Andover, MA
24 Pleasant Grove, UT
25 Wheaton, IL
26 Bartlett, IL
27 Rexburg, ID
28 Brunswick, OH
29 Ossining, NY
30 Sammamish, WA
31 Reading, MA
32 Belmont, MA
33 North Andover, MA
34 Hanover Park, IL
35 Saratoga Springs, UT
36 Fort Lee, NJ
37 Plymouth, MA
38 Madison, MS
39 Ballwin, MO
40 Huntley, IL
41 Newton, MA
42 Wellesley, MA
43 Friendswood, TX
44 Ridgewood, NJ
45 Cheshire, CT
46 Melrose, MA
47 Lockport, IL
48 Rochester Hills, MI
49 Plainfield, IL
50 Milton, MA
51 Carol Stream, IL
52 Aliso Viejo, CA
53 Londonderry, NH
54 Flower Mound, TX
55 Westfield, NJ
56 Sayreville, NJ
57 Long Beach, NY
58 South Kingstown, RI
59 Carmel, IN
60 Bella Vista, AR
61 Westport, CT
62 Johns Creek, GA
63 Holly Springs, NC
64 Kaysville, UT
65 Palatine, IL
66 Moorpark, CA
67 Hoffman Estates, IL
68 Beverly, MA
69 Glen Ellyn, IL
70 Wylie, TX
71 Highland Park, IL
72 Milton, GA
73 Brentwood, TN
74 Danville, CA
75 Des Plaines, IL
76 Mundelein, IL
77 Gloucester, MA
78 Mason, OH
79 Spring Hill, TN
80 Wakefield, MA
81 Lake Forest, CA
82 Little Elm, TX
83 Arlington Heights, IL
84 Saratoga, CA
85 Park Ridge, IL
86 Lakeville, MN
87 Cumberland, RI
88 Bethel Park, PA
89 Fishers, IN
90 Poway, CA
91 Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
92 Hilliard, OH
93 New Berlin, WI
94 Mount Prospect, IL
95 Mission Viejo, CA
96 New Milford, CT
97 Oviedo, FL
98 Foster City, CA
99 Syracuse, UT
100 Shelton, CT
Rank | City
1 Monroe, LA
2 Bessemer, AL
3 East St. Louis, IL
4 Camden, NJ
5 Detroit, MI
6 St. Louis, MO
7 Wilmington, DE
8 Alexandria, LA
9 Memphis, TN
10 West Memphis, AR
11 Baltimore, MD
12 Rockford, IL
13 Myrtle Beach, SC
14 Kansas City, MO
15 Cleveland, OH
16 Flint, MI
17 Pine Bluff, AR
18 San Bernardino, CA
19 Charleston, WV
20 Danville, IL
21 Chester, PA
22 Milwaukee, WI
23 Elkhart, IN
24 Little Rock, AR
25 Saginaw, MI
26 Newburgh, NY
27 Oakland, CA
28 Stockton, CA
29 Indianapolis, IN
30 Riviera Beach, FL
31 Lake Worth, FL
32 Trenton, NJ
33 Springfield, MO
34 Jackson, MI
35 Gadsden, AL
36 Pontiac, MI
37 Kalamazoo, MI
38 Fort Myers, FL
39 East Point, GA
40 Daytona Beach, FL
41 Washington, DC
42 Albany, GA
43 Toledo, OH
44 Niagara Falls, NY
45 Homestead, FL
46 Lansing, MI
47 Compton, CA
48 Anchorage, AK
49 Springfield, IL
50 Albuquerque, NM
51 Atlanta, GA
52 Buffalo, NY
53 Beaumont, TX
54 Minneapolis, MN
55 Chicago, IL
56 Tulsa, OK
57 Hartford, CT
58 Goldsboro, NC
59 New Orleans, LA
60 Lubbock, TX
61 Fall River, MA
62 Holyoke, MA
63 Brockton, MA
64 Harrisburg, PA
65 Florence, SC
66 Wichita, KS
67 Battle Creek, MI
68 Houston, TX
69 Springfield, MA
70 Muskogee, OK
71 Chattanooga, TN
72 Miami Beach, FL
73 South Bend, IN
74 Lima, OH
75 Dayton, OH
76 Philadelphia, PA
77 Modesto, CA
78 Salisbury, NC
79 Wheeling, WV
80 Pueblo, CO
81 Port Huron, MI
82 North Las Vegas, NV
83 Chelsea, MA
84 Shreveport, LA
85 Newark, NJ
86 Baton Rouge, LA
87 Salisbury, MA
88 York, PA
89 Canton, OH
90 Salt Lake City, UT
91 Tacoma, WA
92 New Haven, CT
93 Jackson, TN
94 Richmond, CA
95 Eureka, CA
96 Huntsville, AL
97 Sanford, FL
98 Schenectady, NY
99 Lauderhill, FL
100 Cincinnati, OH
“We continue to see bedroom communities, which are within large metro areas and near major urban centers like Boston, Chicago, and New York, make the top of our list,” said Dr. Andrew Schiller, CEO and founder of Location, Inc. and NeighborhoodScout. “These safe communities within the urban/suburban fabric of America’s largest metropolitan areas often combine access to high-paying jobs in the urban center, decent schools, and a high quality of life. This access to opportunity increases home values, with the result often being lower crime.”
For example, Ridgefield, CT is a low-crime, high-opportunity haven. The community’s proximity to New York, Stamford, Danbury and other business and financial hubs, via car or public transit, make Ridgefield appealing to professionals. Families also appreciate Ridgefield’s combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single-family homes.
These location “must-haves” appear repeatedly among states with the largest number of cities making the list, including Massachusetts and Illinois. Residents of Harrison, NY, Huntley, IL, and list newcomer Wakefield, MA enjoy quiet pockets in metropolitan America, with close access to New York, Chicago, and Boston, respectively.
While NeighborhoodScout’s list of the Top 100 Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S. comprises violent crimes, the Safest Cities list comprises both violent and property crimes. The reason for this distinction: The general public tends to equate a “dangerous” city with “violent” crime (armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape, homicide), while a “safe” city means safety from both property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft) and violence.
The Safest Cities list results are based on the number of crimes reported and the population of each city, divided by 1,000 to make crime rates comparable across all cities. By providing a rate for crime per 1,000 residents, only NeighborhoodScout offers an accurate, normalized comparison of cities of different sizes.
Crime research reveals the 30 cities in America with the highest number of murders per 1,000 residents. Murder is the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. We limited our research to cities with 25,000 or more people. Data used for this research are 1) the number of murders reported to the FBI to have occurred in each city, and 2) the population of each city.
The countdown for the Top 30 Murder Capitals of America:
Rank | City
30 Lake Worth, FL
29 Charleston, WV
28 Harrisburg, PA
27 Kansas City, MO
26 East Point, GA
25 Chicago, IL
24 San Bernardino, CA
23 Elkhart, IN
22 North Charleston, SC
21 Memphis, TN
20 Orlando, FL
19 Goldsboro, NC
18 Jackson, MS
17 Petersburg, VA
16 Cleveland, OH
15 Newark, NJ
14 Compton, CA
13 Wilmington, DE
12 Danville, VA
11 Salisbury, NC
10 New Orleans, LA
9 Detroit, MI
8 Flint, MI
7 Baltimore, MD
6 West Memphis, AR
5 Gary, IN
4 St. Louis, MO
3 Camden, NJ
2 Chester, PA
1 East St. Louis, IL
NeighborhoodScout’s analysis of annual crime rates by city is the most comprehensive available because it factors in all reported crimes from all 18,000 local law enforcement agencies across the country. This is important because many cities are served by more than one agency (municipal police, county sheriff, transit police, etc.).
About Location, Inc.
Location, Inc. is a leader in geographic data sciences, providing street-and address-level location intelligence and predictive analytics for businesses across the U.S. and Canada via web-based reports and streaming data. Since 2000, the company has amassed highly accurate and comprehensive catalogue of spatial data products, with complete, national coverage and sub-ZIP Code granularity. A pioneer in building micro-spatial data products, Location, Inc. specializes in real estate market insights and projections, and crime and hazard risk products for the real estate, insurance and finance sectors. More than 70 million people and businesses have leveraged the company’s data products to make informed location decisions, fuel major investments, mitigate risk, protect assets, and uncover opportunity. www.locationinc.com
