If you're considering a move to Ohio, we've done the hard work of locating the safest places to live in The Buckeye State. We've sifted through FBI crime data, examining 239 cities with populations exceeding 5,000, to compile a comprehensive list of the safest places in Ohio for 2026.
Specifically, we analyzed the FBI's crime statistics on violent and property crimes per capita for every place in Ohio. And at this point, we're quite the experts on ranking safe cities; it's the eleventh time we've ranked the safest places in Ohio.
Whether you're a young professional searching for a secure urban oasis, a family looking for a safe and nurturing environment, or a retiree seeking tranquility, Ohio has it all. Cities like Dublin offer a blend of safety and prosperity, while the vibrant Columbus provides a lively atmosphere focusing on security.
So, if you're eager to discover more about the safest havens in Ohio, grab a bowl of Cincinnati chili and join us as we explore the most secure places to call home in the Heart of It All.
5 violent / 101 property per 100k
Located in
Cuyahoga County, OhioThe safest place to live in Ohio for 2026 goes to Broadview Heights. A cleveland suburb, this year is the second time Broadview Heights reported their data to the FBI. Usually you'd think a city would have something to hide by not reporting, but they should have been all over this from day one.
The city of some 20,000 people has the safest property crime rate in the state and the seventh safest violent crime rate.
That means that you can leave the door unlocked at your house when you take a stroll down to main street.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
17 violent / 243 property per 100k
Located in
Lorain County, OhioGrafton might be home to a few prisons, but it's unlikely you'll see any of the village's residents in the clink. While there were a couple of violent crimes in 2024, things are under control here for the most part.
Residents would rather spend their time making furry friends at the local Our Little World Alpacas farm than go in on a crime. In fact, Grafton's property crime rate ranks as the sixth safest lowest in Ohio and the overall crime rate is roughly 80% below the national average.
Grafton is situated about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
20 violent / 157 property per 100k
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
14 violent / 271 property per 100k
0 violent / 313 property per 100k
Located in
Cuyahoga County, OhioOh my gosh, Olmsted Falls makes another appearance in our rankings of the safest cities in Ohio.
This is the sixth time we've done these rankings and we see Olmsted Falls every year -- it's becoming basically a tradition of sorts to see them somewhere in the top ten.
This year violent crime was up a tick, but property crime stayed low to secure its spot as the fifth safest in Ohio.
Olmsted Falls is located, like most cities on the list, outside of Cleveland in Cuyahoga County. So it seems that Cuyahoga would take the mantle if we ranked the safest counties in Ohio. Hmm. that's not a bad idea.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
19 violent / 290 property per 100k
Located in
Lorain County, OhioData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7 violent / 306 property per 100k
Located in
Cuyahoga County, OhioData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0 violent / 372 property per 100k
Located in
Hamilton County, OhioData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34 violent / 200 property per 100k
20 violent / 298 property per 100k
Located in
Cuyahoga County, OhioData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Ohio's statewide median. Lower is safer.
Ohio statewide median: 125
Ohio statewide median: 1,149
Ohio statewide median: 0
On the map
Where the safety is in Ohio
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the safest cities in Ohio for 2026
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in Ohio 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 Ohio.
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 21 crimes committed in Broadview Heights, with a reported population of 19,709. That means the number of crimes per capita is 0.0011, which translates into a 1 in 938 chance of being the victim of a crime.
We only looked at Ohio cities that have populations of more than 5,000. This filter left us with 239 of the biggest cities in Ohio to rank.
We ranked each city for each criterion from 1 to 239 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 Ohio," with any ties going to the bigger city.
The safest city in Ohio, based on our criteria, is Broadview Heights. The most dangerous city in Ohio? Cleveland, where residents had a 1 in 16 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 Ohio. All the data comes from the FBI's Crime In The USA 2024 report.
Summary
Summary: The Safest Cities In The Buckeye State
Looking at the data, you can tell that Broadview Heights is as safe as they come in Ohio, according to science and data.
But as most Ohio 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 Ohio are .
For more reading, check out:
The full plate
Where Are The Safest Cities In Ohio For 2026?
Click any column to sort. All 239 ranked Ohio cities.
| Rank | City | Population | Violent / 100k | Property / 100k | Murders / 100k | Murders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Broadview Heights, OH | 19,709 | 5 | 101 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Grafton, OH | 5,754 | 17 | 243 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Whitehouse, OH | 5,082 | 19 | 157 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Genoa, OH | 28,085 | 14 | 270 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Olmsted Falls, OH | 8,638 | 0 | 312 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Avon Lake, OH | 26,167 | 19 | 290 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Brecksville, OH | 14,045 | 7 | 306 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Madeira, OH | 9,400 | 0 | 372 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Olmsted, OH | 14,535 | 34 | 199 | 6 | 1 |
| 10 | Mayfield Heights, OH | 19,792 | 20 | 298 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Highland Heights, OH | 8,554 | 0 | 444 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Aurora, OH | 17,869 | 16 | 380 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Chardon, OH | 5,238 | 0 | 458 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Berea, OH | 17,886 | 22 | 374 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Parma Heights, OH | 20,484 | 29 | 331 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Lawrence, OH | 8,193 | 48 | 268 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Pepper Pike, OH | 6,883 | 0 | 537 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | Rocky River, OH | 21,256 | 23 | 418 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Hinckley, OH | 8,176 | 48 | 293 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Perrysburg, OH | 25,302 | 27 | 446 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | Clearcreek, OH | 19,749 | 35 | 405 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Montville, OH | 13,415 | 59 | 268 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Bay, OH | 15,838 | 50 | 328 | 6 | 1 |
| 24 | Hudson, OH | 22,932 | 34 | 475 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Poland, OH | 12,019 | 49 | 357 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Canfield, OH | 7,588 | 52 | 342 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Bellbrook, OH | 7,439 | 40 | 457 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | Willowick, OH | 14,089 | 63 | 291 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | Mason, OH | 35,923 | 36 | 528 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | Trenton, OH | 13,995 | 85 | 157 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | Columbiana, OH | 6,819 | 73 | 307 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | Westlake, OH | 34,189 | 29 | 649 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | Brunswick, OH | 34,952 | 65 | 383 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | Vermilion, OH | 10,722 | 46 | 559 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | Norwalk, OH | 17,164 | 40 | 611 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | Springboro, OH | 19,591 | 45 | 602 | 5 | 1 |
| 37 | Cortland, OH | 7,051 | 56 | 482 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 | Huron, OH | 6,613 | 90 | 272 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | Montgomery, OH | 10,784 | 37 | 658 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | Mentor-On-The-Lake, OH | 7,070 | 42 | 636 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | Twinsburg, OH | 19,500 | 56 | 553 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Brook Park, OH | 18,054 | 55 | 576 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 | New Franklin, OH | 13,763 | 87 | 319 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Bedford, OH | 12,761 | 62 | 540 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 | Upper Arlington, OH | 35,410 | 28 | 799 | 0 | 0 |
| 46 | Powell, OH | 14,572 | 20 | 898 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 | Loveland, OH | 13,108 | 83 | 419 | 0 | 0 |
| 48 | Bainbridge, OH | 12,921 | 0 | 1,006 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 | Orrville, OH | 8,409 | 107 | 297 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | Bryan, OH | 8,571 | 58 | 746 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 | Sylvania, OH | 19,034 | 63 | 740 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 | Solon, OH | 23,736 | 54 | 800 | 0 | 0 |
| 53 | St. Clair, OH | 7,592 | 52 | 895 | 0 | 0 |
| 54 | Delphos, OH | 7,045 | 85 | 624 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 | Milford, OH | 6,404 | 46 | 936 | 0 | 0 |
| 56 | Beaver, OH | 6,659 | 75 | 735 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 | Centerville, OH | 26,281 | 38 | 1,008 | 0 | 0 |
| 58 | Celina, OH | 10,870 | 45 | 975 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 | Wyoming, OH | 8,643 | 92 | 601 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 | Champion, OH | 9,303 | 75 | 752 | 0 | 0 |
| 61 | Brookville, OH | 5,894 | 67 | 882 | 0 | 0 |
| 62 | Shawnee, OH | 12,438 | 96 | 643 | 0 | 0 |
| 63 | Avon, OH | 25,562 | 74 | 895 | 0 | 0 |
| 64 | Belpre, OH | 6,580 | 106 | 577 | 0 | 0 |
| 65 | New Philadelphia, OH | 17,362 | 115 | 512 | 0 | 0 |
| 66 | Bowling Green, OH | 30,287 | 69 | 957 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 | Richmond Heights, OH | 10,509 | 76 | 903 | 9 | 1 |
| 68 | Louisville, OH | 9,761 | 92 | 758 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 | North Olmsted, OH | 31,532 | 63 | 998 | 3 | 1 |
| 70 | Seven Hills, OH | 11,526 | 86 | 884 | 0 | 0 |
| 71 | North Canton, OH | 17,577 | 56 | 1,092 | 0 | 0 |
| 72 | Medina, OH | 25,827 | 100 | 770 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 | Blendon, OH | 7,802 | 76 | 986 | 0 | 0 |
| 74 | Germantown, OH | 5,810 | 103 | 774 | 0 | 0 |
| 75 | Harrison, OH | 13,559 | 110 | 737 | 0 | 0 |
| 76 | Parma, OH | 78,967 | 119 | 710 | 0 | 0 |
| 77 | Bellefontaine, OH | 14,061 | 106 | 789 | 0 | 0 |
| 78 | Athens, OH | 25,104 | 95 | 963 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 | Ross, OH | 8,897 | 157 | 438 | 0 | 0 |
| 80 | Waterville, OH | 5,998 | 133 | 583 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 | Deer Park, OH | 5,309 | 113 | 753 | 0 | 0 |
| 82 | London, OH | 10,623 | 122 | 724 | 9 | 1 |
| 83 | Kettering, OH | 56,562 | 42 | 1,501 | 0 | 0 |
| 84 | Dublin, OH | 48,784 | 108 | 916 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 | Union, OH | 6,977 | 85 | 1,117 | 0 | 0 |
| 86 | Strongsville, OH | 45,600 | 72 | 1,282 | 0 | 0 |
| 87 | Willoughby, OH | 24,261 | 107 | 931 | 0 | 0 |
| 88 | Pierce, OH | 15,431 | 103 | 972 | 0 | 0 |
| 89 | Canal Fulton, OH | 5,339 | 131 | 730 | 0 | 0 |
| 90 | Tallmadge, OH | 18,287 | 109 | 951 | 0 | 0 |
| 91 | Wickliffe, OH | 12,600 | 126 | 769 | 0 | 0 |
| 92 | Wapakoneta, OH | 9,731 | 92 | 1,099 | 0 | 0 |
| 93 | Howland, OH | 17,051 | 87 | 1,149 | 0 | 0 |
| 94 | Marysville, OH | 29,393 | 98 | 1,081 | 0 | 0 |
| 95 | American, OH | 12,432 | 24 | 1,874 | 0 | 0 |
| 96 | Clayton, OH | 13,195 | 90 | 1,151 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 | Toronto, OH | 5,155 | 290 | 116 | 0 | 0 |
| 98 | Hillsboro, OH | 6,660 | 75 | 1,321 | 0 | 0 |
| 99 | Dover, OH | 12,917 | 154 | 627 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 | Sheffield Lake, OH | 8,969 | 211 | 445 | 0 | 0 |
Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In Ohio
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