These Are The Safest Cities In Each State For 2017


We used science and data to determine which city in each state is the safest.

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safest-city-in-each-state-2017

There are two questions everyone asks when they are looking to move to an area — how much does it cost and is it safe? We’re here to focus the second question with the most recent dataset distributed by the FBI.

But there’s a twist.

We aren’t going hyperlocal with this analysis, we’re taking a look at the best of the best. These are the safest cities in each state, some of the best America has to offer.

And while everyone of these cities is generally pretty safe, there are still outliers — the safest of the safest if you will. Here’s a quick look at the cities that have the brighest angelic halo of safety about them:

  1. Sammish, WA
  2. Weston, FL
  3. Johns Creek, GA
  4. Rochester Hills, MI
  5. Wheaton, IL
  6. Tonawanda, NY
  7. Carmel, IN
  8. Flower Mound, TX
  9. Yorba Linda, CA
  10. Lakeville, MN

Sammash, WA and Weston, FL — cities on literally opposite corners of the contiguous United States — managed to tie for the safest cities in our analysis. That’s pretty impressive.

However, what’s even more impressive is another statistic they tied on — a murder rate of 0%. Not bad with a combined populations north of 100,000.

Now, read on as we explain why they ranked higher than the rest. Or learn about some of the safest small cities in America.

How We Determined The Safest Cities In Each State

The FBI releases detailed breakdowns of where crimes occurred across America. We used the most recent available data to perform the analysis for this study. Specifically, we used the cities in America to rank using the following criteria:

  • Violent Crimes Per Capita
  • Property Crimes Per Capita

We ranked all the cities from 1 to 656 for both of the criteria with the safest cities being ranked 1. We then took the average of the two rankings to create a safety score.

Finally, we took the city in each state with the highest safety score to create the map.

It’s important to note that this methodology does not determine the safest cities in America. For example, Palatine, IL is the 10th safest city in America by this criteria but doesn’t appear on the list because Wheaton, IL ranks higher and — much like the hunger games — there can be only one winner for a state.

That being said, nine of the ten safest places America do appear on this list including the big guns (or should I safety nets?) at the top — Sammish and Weston.

Continue on to learn a bit more about the safest of safe or jump to the end for a table with all states.

1. Sammish, WA

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 68,423
Property Crime Rank: 2
Violent Crime Rank: 6

1. Weston, FL

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 50,163
Property Crime Rank: 6
Violent Crime Rank: 2

3. Rochester, MI

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 82,203
Property Crime Rank: 3
Violent Crime Rank: 8

4. Johns Creek, GA

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 72,643
Property Crime Rank: 7
Violent Crime Rank: 4

5. Tonawanda, NY

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 53,585
Property Crime Rank: 4
Violent Crime Rank: 9

6. Wheaton, IL

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 58,149
Property Crime Rank: 1
Violent Crime Rank: 12

7. Carmel, IN

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 85,367
Property Crime Rank: 16
Violent Crime Rank: 1

8. Flower Mound, TX

Flower_Mound_Sign

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 68,654
Property Crime Rank: 5
Violent Crime Rank: 14

9. Yorba Linda, CA

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 67,033
Property Crime Rank: 14
Violent Crime Rank: 22

10. Lakeville, MN

Safest City In Each State

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 58,592
Property Crime Rank: 42
Violent Crime Rank: 7

Wrapping It Up In A Giant Safety Blanket

There you have it — the safest of the safe cities in America. These are the places where crime is at historic lows and people sleep safe and sound.

Now if only the real estate prices would come down we could all afford to live in there.

More Reading On Places Across America

Detailed Ranking Of The Safest City In Each State

Rank City Population Total Crime
1 Weston, FL 68,423 461
1 Sammamish, WA 50,163 404
3 Johns Creek, GA 82,203 575
4 Rochester Hills, MI 72,643 604
5 Wheaton, IL 53,585 411
6 Tonawanda, NY 58,149 319
7 Carmel, IN 85,367 887
8 Flower Mound, TX 68,654 540
9 Yorba Linda, CA 67,033 689
10 Lakeville, MN 58,592 769
11 Newton, MA 87,675 812
12 Cary, NC 151,186 1,983
13 O’Fallon, MO 83,053 1,072
14 Lehi, UT 54,079 694
15 Gilbert, AZ 230,781 3,444
16 Parma, OH 80,380 1,106
17 Bowie, MD 56,885 752
18 Meridian, ID 84,018 1,152
19 Centennial, CO 106,604 1,441
20 West Haven, CT 55,189 935
21 Warwick, RI 81,855 1,634
22 Olathe, KS 131,508 2,276
23 Edmond, OK 86,739 1,556
24 Bismarck, ND 66,980 1,028
25 Waukesha, WI 71,324 1,243
26 Bellevue, NE 54,067 1,066
27 Mount Pleasant, SC 74,952 1,403
28 Bayonne, NJ 65,378 942
29 Hendersonville, TN 54,168 1,047
30 Ankeny, IA 51,489 790
31 Nashua, NH 87,110 1,528
32 Henderson, NV 271,725 5,825
33 Virginia Beach, VA 448,290 10,613
34 Rio Rancho, NM 91,807 2,084
35 South Burlington, VT 18,536 506
36 Corvallis, OR 54,981 1,615
37 Casper, WY 58,817 1,755
38 Hoover, AL 83,547 2,586
39 Scranton, PA 76,064 2,293
40 Portland, ME 66,490 2,237
41 Owensboro, KY 58,350 2,308
42 Great Falls, MT 59,563 2,819
43 Rogers, AR 60,384 2,353
44 Gulfport, MS 70,642 3,903
45 Sioux Falls, SD 164,341 6,504
46 Lake Charles, LA 74,190 3,616
47 Anchorage, AK 299,107 15,027
48 Wilmington, DE 71,549 4,434
49 Charleston, WV 50,566 3,934
50 Honolulu, HI 374,658 20,136

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.