What do 7.2 million Arizona residents know that we don't? Well, besides how cool it is that Sedona has a pretty happening art scene or how much fun can be had on the ski slopes in Flagstaff, Arizonans know that their state has some of the safest places to live in America.
To find Arizona's safest cities, you must know how to navigate the state's property and violent crime heat map. We looked at the FBI data on crime for places in Arizona with more than 5,000 residents and created a list of the safest places to live in The Copper State for 2026.
Our research led us to multiple conclusions. One, there are safe places throughout Arizona from Tucson in the state's southern region to Page in the northern part. And two, you should look at our list of Arizona's safest places below before making any decisions. There are some surprisingly dangerous places in Arizona, also.
So, where can you live in Arizona and feel safe? Keep reading.
78 violent / 469 property per 100k
Ranked first in safety across Arizona, Chino Valley touts a low 78/100k people violent crime rate and an even lower 0.0 murder rate. The town also enjoys a modest 469/100k people property crime rate, reflecting its secure environment among its 14,059 residents.
Chino Valley's status as the first Territorial Capital bolsters its historical value. At the same time, its strategic location near Prescott and Ash Fork offers connectivity without sacrificing safety, reinforcing its position as a secure and historically significant town in Yavapai County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
20 violent / 553 property per 100k
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
72 violent / 649 property per 100k
Get ready to pack your mini-van and move to Thatcher -- it's one of the safest places for families, and all people, in the Copper State.
With the third safest rate of violent crime in the state, you won't have to worry about installing a panic room in your house. Interestingly, this is the second year that Thatcher was eligible for our list as it just passed the 5,000 person threshold this year. Moving on up and moving on into the safest places.
Thatcher is a town in Graham County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
88 violent / 549 property per 100k
Sometimes the US-Mexico border gets a bad rap for being dangerous, but San Luis hurts that narrative by being the fourth safest place in Arizona.
What's especially impressive in San Luis is it's remarkably low rate of violent crimes -- in a city of over 30,000 residents, San Luis experienced only 8 violent crimes in the last year of data. That leaves residents with just a 1 in 4,134 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in a year, which is light years ahead of the national average.
So you can check out the Yuma Territorial Prison Museum as a visitor, but it's unlikely any San Luis residents will become full-time tenants.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
100 violent / 638 property per 100k
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
120 violent / 548 property per 100k
Florence ranks as the sixth safest city in Arizona.
Looking into Florence, you'll notice that there's an abnormally high number of prisons in the area. We'd propose that the people that live in town see what life in prison is like and choose to avoid it. That leads to the third safest rate of property crime in the state and the 15th safest rate of violent crime. And if the prisons aren't the reason for the low levels of crime then it's probably the "Country Thunder" music festival each year that booms the crime away.
Florence is a town, 61 miles southeast of Phoenix, in Pinal County
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
177 violent / 530 property per 100k
Everyone is Somerton practices safe practices throughout the day -- they hit their 10,000 steps a day, eat their vegetables, and don't smoke. All that leads to the fifth lowest property crime rate and eighth overall placement.
Located so far west it is basically in California, Somerton offers it's safety at a low cost -- the median rent here is only $620/mo. So unlike Paradise Valley, everyone can afford to be safe here.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
108 violent / 863 property per 100k
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
120 violent / 822 property per 100k
Queen Creek, with a population of 82,639 in Maricopa County, Arizona, is ranked as the ninth safest city in the state. This community, part of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area and historically known as "Rittenhouse," only had 99 violent crimes and 0 murder cases in 2026.
Queen Creek's commendable safety is reflected in its low 119/100k people violent crime and 821/100k people property crime rates per capita, with a mere 47 burglaries. The city's proactive policing is evident from its rankings: 14th safest in violent crime and tenth safest in property crime.
Data | Cost of living | Movers
51 violent / 1,148 property per 100k
Oro Valley ranks as the tenth safest city in Arizona.
And to be honest, it's probably pretty hard to commit any crime when you're too busy golfing around any of the almost ten golf clubs in town.
For those ambitious people willing to put down the golf club for half second, they did manage to place Oro Valley with the second safest violent crime rate in the state.
Located in southwestern Arizona, the city scores a solid 9 / 10 on our SnackAbility score -- meaning it's a great place to live all around and not just because it's safe.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Arizona's statewide median. Lower is safer.
Arizona statewide median: 225
Arizona statewide median: 1,256
Arizona statewide median: 1
On the map
Where the safety is in Arizona
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the safest cities in Arizona for 2026
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in Arizona are the safest, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI's most recent crime report in Arizona.
Specifically, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of property and violent crimes in each city annually. We used two criteria:
- Violent crimes per capita (murders, assaults, rapes, armed robberies)
- Property crimes per capita (thefts, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts)
For example, there were 77 crimes committed in Chino Valley, with a reported population of 14,059. That means the number of crimes per capita is 0.0055, which translates into a 1 in 182 chance of being the victim of a crime.
We only looked at Arizona cities that have populations of more than 5,000. This filter left us with 53 of the biggest cities in Arizona to rank.
We ranked each city for each criterion from 1 to 53 where 1 in any particular category is the safest.
Next, we averaged each place's two criteria to create a Safety Index. We crowned the place with the lowest overall Safety Score, "The Safest Place In Arizona," with any ties going to the bigger city.
The safest city in Arizona, based on our criteria, is Chino Valley. The most dangerous city in Arizona? Tolleson, where residents had a 1 in 9 chance of being the victim of a crime.
This article has been update for 2026. This report marks our eleventh time ranking the safest places to live in Arizona. All the data comes from the FBI's Crime In The USA 2024 report.
Summary
Summary: The Safest Cities In The Grand Canyon State
Looking at the data, you can tell that Chino Valley is as safe as they come in Arizona, according to science and data.
But as most Arizona residents would agree, almost every place here has its safe and not safe parts. So just make sure you're informed ahead of time.
The safest places in Arizona are .
For more reading, check out:
The full plate
Where Are The Safest Cities In Arizona For 2026?
Click any column to sort. All 53 ranked Arizona cities.
| Rank | City | Population | Violent / 100k | Property / 100k | Murders / 100k | Murders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chino Valley, AZ | 14,059 | 78 | 469 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Clarkdale, AZ | 5,061 | 19 | 553 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Thatcher, AZ | 5,546 | 72 | 649 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | San Luis, AZ | 38,809 | 87 | 548 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Bisbee, AZ | 5,019 | 99 | 637 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Florence, AZ | 23,354 | 119 | 548 | 8 | 2 |
| 7 | Somerton, AZ | 14,717 | 176 | 529 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Wickenburg, AZ | 8,343 | 107 | 862 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Queen Creek, AZ | 82,639 | 119 | 821 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Oro Valley, AZ | 48,680 | 51 | 1,148 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Paradise Valley, AZ | 12,440 | 80 | 988 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Litchfield Park, AZ | 6,881 | 101 | 944 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Surprise, AZ | 163,202 | 109 | 875 | 7 | 12 |
| 14 | Sahuarita, AZ | 37,049 | 91 | 977 | 5 | 2 |
| 15 | Buckeye, AZ | 114,513 | 166 | 771 | 2 | 3 |
| 16 | Gilbert, AZ | 277,527 | 132 | 968 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | Prescott Valley, AZ | 51,116 | 224 | 768 | 3 | 2 |
| 18 | Maricopa, AZ | 75,614 | 224 | 868 | 2 | 2 |
| 19 | Douglas, AZ | 15,359 | 78 | 1,569 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Marana, AZ | 60,507 | 115 | 1,350 | 3 | 2 |
| 21 | Camp Verde, AZ | 12,597 | 182 | 1,135 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Cottonwood, AZ | 13,441 | 223 | 1,168 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Chandler, AZ | 281,117 | 133 | 1,504 | 0 | 2 |
| 24 | Snowflake-Taylor, AZ | 11,231 | 311 | 1,112 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Goodyear, AZ | 116,892 | 182 | 1,462 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Peoria, AZ | 201,056 | 254 | 1,205 | 1 | 3 |
| 27 | Prescott, AZ | 48,339 | 335 | 1,117 | 2 | 1 |
| 28 | Payson, AZ | 16,845 | 261 | 1,222 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | Scottsdale, AZ | 245,237 | 152 | 1,875 | 0 | 1 |
| 30 | Sierra Vista, AZ | 44,119 | 217 | 1,663 | 2 | 1 |
| 31 | Eloy, AZ | 19,594 | 484 | 969 | 10 | 2 |
| 32 | Sedona, AZ | 9,861 | 314 | 1,298 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | El Mirage, AZ | 35,815 | 382 | 1,256 | 2 | 1 |
| 34 | Yuma, AZ | 101,989 | 423 | 1,247 | 2 | 3 |
| 35 | Lake Havasu City, AZ | 59,898 | 355 | 1,394 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | Coolidge, AZ | 20,276 | 305 | 1,528 | 9 | 2 |
| 37 | Kingman, AZ | 36,187 | 221 | 3,379 | 8 | 3 |
| 38 | Casa Grande, AZ | 67,317 | 410 | 1,528 | 5 | 4 |
| 39 | Apache Junction, AZ | 41,994 | 426 | 1,512 | 2 | 1 |
| 40 | Mesa, AZ | 513,585 | 482 | 1,464 | 2 | 14 |
| 41 | Nogales, AZ | 19,686 | 228 | 3,601 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Avondale, AZ | 94,911 | 369 | 2,241 | 5 | 5 |
| 43 | Bullhead City, AZ | 43,923 | 455 | 2,192 | 2 | 1 |
| 44 | Flagstaff, AZ | 76,433 | 463 | 2,232 | 6 | 5 |
| 45 | Tempe, AZ | 191,376 | 470 | 2,893 | 2 | 5 |
| 46 | Glendale, AZ | 255,512 | 488 | 2,670 | 7 | 20 |
| 47 | Show Low, AZ | 12,341 | 737 | 2,260 | 16 | 2 |
| 48 | Phoenix, AZ | 1,662,809 | 799 | 2,325 | 8 | 139 |
| 49 | Tucson, AZ | 548,789 | 588 | 3,313 | 6 | 37 |
| 50 | Page, AZ | 7,288 | 548 | 5,200 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 | Winslow, AZ | 8,362 | 813 | 3,635 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 | Globe, AZ | 7,156 | 810 | 5,408 | 0 | 0 |
| 53 | Tolleson, AZ | 7,141 | 1,008 | 9,158 | 0 | 0 |
Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In Arizona
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