To truly know what it means to live where it's safe, one must experience the super safe places in Indiana. It's one of the safest states, with some of the safest cities in the country, to call home.
We wanted to know just how safe the safest cities in the Hoosier State are. So, we consulted the numbers and analyzed 94 cities with over 5,000 residents. We looked at important factors like property and violent crimes per capita for every place from Evansville to Gary.
We discovered that Indiana is always looking out for the safety of its residents. For example, hip millennial cities like Bloomington, cool college towns like Lafayette, and great places to raise families like Caramel are just a few of the Hoosier State's safest places.
So before you start a "safety first" campaign in your community, stop, drop, roll, and safely scroll down to see where the safest Indiana cities are located.
13 violent / 83 property per 100k
Located in
Bartholomew County, IndianaData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
24 violent / 129 property per 100k
Located in
Lake County, IndianaNot sure if it's divine inspiration, or just good manners, but St. John lands just outside the top three for Indiana's safest places.
Home to a saint like violent crime rate, the best in the state, there were a grand total of 0 murders here in the last reporting year. Mix in an aggravated assault rate that's 50x lower than average and we bet that there's probably not even any bullies in school -- everyone is just a peace arbiter.
St. John is located in the Northwest Corner of the state about as close to Illinois as you can get without being in Chicago. It also scores a 10/10 on our SnackAbility score which really makes us think this place is #blessed.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34 violent / 51 property per 100k
Data | Cost of living | Movers
19 violent / 192 property per 100k
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
26 violent / 201 property per 100k
Located in
Lake County, IndianaTwo movers and shakers in the top two! And lo and behold we have Lowell as the fifth safest place in Indiana this year.
Moving up over the last several years, the city of almost 10,000 boasts the lowest property crime rate in the state by a really wide margin.
There's so little property crime here that you could drop a $100 bill in the middle of Moose Park and the moose.. I mean children would politely contemplate with each other on who should be the one to give it back to you.
See they wouldn't even fight over who should be nice.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
21 violent / 278 property per 100k
Located in
Boone County, IndianaAre you looking for the heavenly kingdom of Zion? Well, Zionsville, Indiana might not be QUITE as nice as, well, heaven, but it sure is safe. How safe are we talking? In a city of over 25,000 residents, Zionsville didn't experience a single violent crime in the last year of available data. Now that is impressive.
And it isn't like Zionsville is slacking in terms of property crime either. In fact, the rate of property crime in this heavenly city was 10 times lower than the national average, which is the second lowest rate statewide.
If you think all this sounds great but you're waiting to hear one extra weird thing before packing your bags for Zionsville, listen to this: there's an Antique Fan Museum with fans dating back to the 19th century. Now who wouldn't be a fan of that? But if that's not entertaining enough, Indianapolis is only 20 miles south.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
12 violent / 344 property per 100k
Located in
Lake County, IndianaI bet your dying for us to make a pun about tie dying our clothes in a dryer since we are going to talk Dyer now.
Located a stone's throw from St. John, Dyer is the seventh safest place in Indiana and just a shade less holy than St. John. Violent crime rates that are a little bit more standard than St. John's prevented Dyer from overthrowing its neighbor.
And I know I keep saying it, but Dyer also brings me back. They appear on a bunch of our lists and have been for several years. It's one of the best places to live in Indiana this year too, per usual.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7 violent / 421 property per 100k
Located in
DeKalb County, IndianaData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
14 violent / 311 property per 100k
Located in
Ripley County, IndianaData | Cost of living | Movers
50 violent / 252 property per 100k
Located in
Lawrence County, IndianaData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Indiana's statewide median. Lower is safer.
Indiana statewide median: 155
Indiana statewide median: 1,074
Indiana statewide median: 0
On the map
Where the safety is in Indiana
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the safest cities in Indiana for 2026
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in Indiana 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 Indiana.
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 50 crimes committed in Columbus, with a reported population of 51,867. That means the number of crimes per capita is 0.001, which translates into a 1 in 1,037 chance of being the victim of a crime.
We only looked at Indiana cities that have populations of more than 5,000. This filter left us with 94 of the biggest cities in Indiana to rank.
We ranked each city for each criterion from 1 to 94 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 Indiana," with any ties going to the bigger city.
The safest city in Indiana, based on our criteria, is Columbus. The most dangerous city in Indiana? Evansville, where residents had a 1 in 20 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 Indiana. All the data comes from the FBI's Crime In The USA 2024 report.
Summary
Summary: The Safest Cities In The Hoosier State
Looking at the data, you can tell that Columbus is as safe as they come in Indiana, according to science and data.
But as most Indiana 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 Indiana are .
For more reading, check out:
The full plate
Where Are The Safest Cities In Indiana For 2026?
Click any column to sort. All 94 ranked Indiana cities.
| Rank | City | Population | Violent / 100k | Property / 100k | Murders / 100k | Murders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Columbus, IN | 51,867 | 13 | 82 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | St. John, IN | 24,790 | 24 | 129 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Pendleton, IN | 5,933 | 33 | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Porter, IN | 5,205 | 19 | 192 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Lowell, IN | 11,422 | 26 | 201 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Zionsville, IN | 33,121 | 21 | 277 | 3 | 1 |
| 7 | Dyer, IN | 16,278 | 12 | 344 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Auburn, IN | 14,010 | 7 | 421 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Batesville, IN | 7,403 | 13 | 310 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Bedford, IN | 13,872 | 50 | 252 | 7 | 1 |
| 11 | Yorktown, IN | 11,810 | 50 | 220 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Huntington, IN | 16,985 | 47 | 347 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Cedar Lake, IN | 16,748 | 65 | 262 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Bargersville, IN | 11,568 | 60 | 423 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Westfield, IN | 61,845 | 42 | 643 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Gas City, IN | 6,075 | 49 | 609 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Winona Lake, IN | 5,112 | 78 | 293 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | Cicero, IN | 5,737 | 104 | 191 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Brownsburg, IN | 33,343 | 62 | 599 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Crown Point, IN | 35,185 | 76 | 531 | 2 | 1 |
| 21 | Noblesville, IN | 75,216 | 83 | 538 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Elwood, IN | 8,430 | 94 | 462 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Fishers, IN | 105,680 | 72 | 658 | 0 | 1 |
| 24 | Whiteland, IN | 5,699 | 70 | 807 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Carmel, IN | 103,107 | 65 | 812 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Valparaiso, IN | 34,784 | 66 | 807 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | New Castle, IN | 17,306 | 75 | 733 | 23 | 4 |
| 28 | Munster, IN | 23,524 | 51 | 1,028 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | Danville, IN | 11,830 | 92 | 718 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | Tipton, IN | 5,230 | 172 | 305 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | Jasper, IN | 16,806 | 119 | 606 | 5 | 1 |
| 32 | Charlestown, IN | 8,685 | 103 | 725 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | Seymour, IN | 21,678 | 46 | 1,563 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | Logansport, IN | 18,197 | 71 | 1,214 | 5 | 1 |
| 35 | Franklin, IN | 26,089 | 84 | 1,088 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | Crawfordsville, IN | 16,662 | 186 | 642 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 | Decatur, IN | 10,053 | 169 | 676 | 9 | 1 |
| 38 | Nappanee, IN | 6,845 | 204 | 657 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | Huntingburg, IN | 6,527 | 275 | 306 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | West Lafayette, IN | 44,906 | 93 | 1,204 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | Columbia City, IN | 10,186 | 127 | 863 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Bluffton, IN | 10,519 | 180 | 732 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 | Frankfort, IN | 16,313 | 110 | 1,060 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Marion, IN | 28,057 | 106 | 1,104 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 | Kendallville, IN | 10,229 | 205 | 703 | 0 | 0 |
| 46 | Griffith, IN | 16,122 | 130 | 986 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 | Washington, IN | 12,674 | 268 | 473 | 7 | 1 |
| 48 | Tell City, IN | 7,480 | 160 | 882 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 | Highland, IN | 23,381 | 98 | 1,595 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | Highland, IN | 23,381 | 98 | 1,595 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 | Schererville, IN | 29,656 | 124 | 1,264 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 | Greenwood, IN | 67,086 | 108 | 1,529 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | New Haven, IN | 16,098 | 204 | 1,087 | 6 | 1 |
| 54 | Mccordsville, IN | 12,208 | 270 | 761 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 | Avon, IN | 25,147 | 135 | 1,606 | 7 | 2 |
| 56 | Greensburg, IN | 12,374 | 193 | 1,414 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 | Shelbyville, IN | 20,773 | 255 | 1,020 | 0 | 0 |
| 58 | North Vernon, IN | 6,553 | 228 | 1,113 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 | Portage, IN | 38,700 | 235 | 1,108 | 10 | 4 |
| 60 | Whitestown, IN | 14,097 | 205 | 1,312 | 0 | 0 |
| 61 | Angola, IN | 9,488 | 105 | 2,244 | 0 | 0 |
| 62 | Mount Vernon, IN | 6,315 | 332 | 807 | 0 | 0 |
| 63 | Lebanon, IN | 17,435 | 332 | 963 | 0 | 0 |
| 64 | La Porte, IN | 22,511 | 208 | 1,639 | 0 | 0 |
| 65 | Plainfield, IN | 37,790 | 246 | 1,447 | 0 | 0 |
| 66 | Vincennes, IN | 16,535 | 120 | 2,509 | 6 | 1 |
| 67 | Hobart, IN | 29,306 | 150 | 2,272 | 0 | 0 |
| 68 | Linton, IN | 5,213 | 230 | 1,899 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 | Speedway, IN | 14,229 | 161 | 2,614 | 7 | 1 |
| 70 | Beech Grove, IN | 14,335 | 279 | 1,653 | 6 | 1 |
| 71 | Kokomo, IN | 59,995 | 485 | 1,416 | 3 | 2 |
| 72 | Goshen, IN | 34,308 | 221 | 2,474 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 | Jeffersonville, IN | 51,804 | 322 | 1,665 | 3 | 2 |
| 74 | Lawrence, IN | 49,200 | 292 | 1,727 | 12 | 6 |
| 75 | Mishawaka, IN | 50,776 | 236 | 2,570 | 0 | 0 |
| 76 | Michigan City, IN | 31,543 | 291 | 2,114 | 6 | 2 |
| 77 | Boonville, IN | 6,681 | 404 | 1,676 | 0 | 0 |
| 78 | New Albany, IN | 37,174 | 266 | 2,421 | 8 | 3 |
| 79 | Fort Wayne, IN | 271,892 | 307 | 2,223 | 11 | 30 |
| 80 | East Chicago, IN | 25,662 | 826 | 1,589 | 11 | 3 |
| 81 | Warsaw, IN | 16,195 | 413 | 1,759 | 0 | 0 |
| 82 | Clarksville, IN | 22,174 | 239 | 3,287 | 0 | 0 |
| 83 | Lafayette, IN | 71,374 | 599 | 2,042 | 7 | 5 |
| 84 | Brazil, IN | 8,228 | 644 | 1,847 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 | Bloomington, IN | 78,762 | 286 | 2,718 | 3 | 3 |
| 86 | Anderson, IN | 55,355 | 419 | 2,256 | 5 | 3 |
| 87 | Cumberland, IN | 6,571 | 334 | 2,343 | 0 | 0 |
| 88 | South Bend, IN | 103,415 | 965 | 2,044 | 2 | 3 |
| 89 | Muncie, IN | 65,072 | 602 | 2,257 | 4 | 3 |
| 90 | Terre Haute, IN | 58,536 | 550 | 3,426 | 3 | 2 |
| 91 | Hammond, IN | 75,677 | 741 | 3,072 | 14 | 11 |
| 92 | Elkhart, IN | 53,357 | 995 | 2,599 | 1 | 1 |
| 93 | Indianapolis, IN | 890,685 | 877 | 3,336 | 19 | 178 |
| 94 | Evansville, IN | 114,660 | 1,206 | 3,678 | 10 | 12 |
Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In Indiana
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