The 10 Safest Cities In America For 2024

We used Saturday Night Science to determine the cities in America where everyone sleeps safe and sound.

Safest Cities To Live In The United States Map

We all want the finer things in life. Love, comfort, and safety are at the top of everyone's list.

For a lot of people who live in America, safety isn't a problem, but we don't all get to live in the safest cities -- unless, of course, you live in Naperville.

The purpose of this post is to determine where the safest cities to live are in America. We used Saturday Night Science to compare the most recent FBI crime data on crimes per capita across large cities.

After analyzing 312 cities in the United States with a population of more than 100,000, we came up with this list of the safest cities in America for 2024.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Richest Cities In The US For 2024

  1. Naperville, IL
  2. Fishers, IN
  3. Carmel, IN
  4. Simi Valley, CA
  5. Allen, TX
  6. Port St. Lucie, FL
  7. Thousand Oaks, CA
  8. Concord, NC
  9. Cary, NC
  10. Meridian, ID

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your city ranked. We have a long infographic to show you individual crime data for each of the safest cities.

If that's not up your alley, for more reading on safe places to live, check out:

The 10 Safest Cities In The United States

Naperville, IL
Source: Wikipedia User David Wilson | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility
10
/10

Population: 148,929
Rank Last Year: 2 (Up 1)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 52 (2nd safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 813 (7th safest)
More on Naperville: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

Welcome to Naperville. One heck of a safe and quiet place. The number of violent and property crimes is just about as low as you can get for a city this big - where you have a 1 in 1,300 chance of being the victim of a major crime.

Naperville is a Chicago suburb. But this ain't nothin like Chicago. Noooo. In Chicago, 1,400 people got shot last year. In Naperville, there were half as many car break-ins, last year, let alone people getting shot. In Chicago, your kids have to run home from school every day.

You can bet that if a missing dog, a little old lady, or even Kathy Griffin needed help in Naperville, someone would lend a helping hand, no matter what. That's the type of place this is.

2. Fishers, IN

Fishers Location In Indiana
Fishers, IN
Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

/10

Population: 102,921
Rank Last Year: -
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 77 (6th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 750 (3rd safest)
More on Fishers: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

If you're thinking of moving to America and safety is a top priority, then you can't do much better than Fishers -- the 2nd safest in America.

Fishers is the kind of place that old timers talk about longingly -- where kids can run around during the day without adult supervision and you can leave your front door unlocked.

You only had a 1 in 133.3 chance of being the victim of a property crime in Fishers.

Carmel, IN
Source: Wikipedia User Serge Melki from Indianapolis, USA | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility
10
/10

Population: 101,670
Rank Last Year: 1 (Down 2)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 64 (4th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 807 (6th safest)
More on Carmel: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

You might not post on Facebook that much, but now's a time to change that. Be proud that Carmel ranks as the 3rd safest city in America.

Go on. With all the negativity on Facebook all the time now, this is great news for Carmel.

We'll wait here safe and sound.

Simi Valley, CA
Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility
9
/10

Population: 125,585
Rank Last Year: 18 (Up 14)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 94 (11th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 851 (8th safest)
More on Simi Valley: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

You might be surprised to find Simi Valley this high on the list, but, trust us, no one in Simi Valley is surpised.

This gem of a place boasts the 8th best property crime rate and 11th best violent crime rate for 2019.

Allen, TX
Source: Wikipedia User MeekMark | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility
9
/10

Population: 108,218
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 2)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 97 (12th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 920 (10th safest)
More on Allen: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

Welcome to Allen, Texas, the 5th safest city in America. So peaceful/ Allen is another Dallas suburb. It's basically right next door to Frisco. Here, you have a 1 in 1,200 chance of being the victim of some sort of crime. When someone gets rubbed out here, it's like a huge deal. There's only been five people wiped out here since 2002.

In Allen, neighbors support their local sports teams. People pitch in to help one another. And you can bet that residents in Allen are proud of their accomplishments. You and I have to worry about all sorts of stuff people in Allen don't. You know, like having our car stolen when we're at the club. Or, getting beat up because we talked to the wrong girl.

Seems like Allen is just the opposite of that lifestyle. If you live there, consider yourself lucky!

Port St. Lucie, FL
Source: Wikipedia User Bernard Gagnon | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility
8
/10

Population: 228,855
Rank Last Year: 10 (Up 4)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 116 (18th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 761 (5th safest)
More on Port St. Lucie: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

Everyone is trying to get in on the quality of life in Port St. Lucie, the 6th safest city in America.

The town of some 228,000 people will have to try and continue to keep Port St. Lucie a secret, lest crime starts going up simply because of people breaking down the doors to get into town.

See what we did there Port St. Lucie?

Thousand Oaks, CA
Source: Wikipedia User User:Howcheng | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility
9.5
/10

Population: 124,862
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 4)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 57 (3rd safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 1,106 (22nd safest)
More on Thousand Oaks: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

Thousand Oaks certainly has a reason to feel safe. We could make a thousand jokes about how safe Thousand Oaks is. But I will say for perspective, in nearby Los Angeles, you'd have a 1 in 131 chance of being the victim of a bad crime. Here in Thousand Oaks, your chances would be faaaar less - closer to 1 in 750.

Plus, if you lived in LA, you'd probably have bad guys for your neighbors.

Crime has been steadily falling in Thousand Oaks for the past few years, too, which puts it towards the bottom when it comes to the number of crimes that take place here. This is certainly the type of place where you can sleep well at night. However, we have to talk about what happened here in 2018 when a man went into the Borderline Bar and Grill and wiped out 12 patrons. That was in Thousand Oaks. If it wasn't for that, Thousand Oaks would be in the top 3 on our list. It was considered a truly random crime.

Concord, NC
Source: Wikipedia User AlexiusHoratius | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility
7
/10

Population: 109,660
Rank Last Year: 12 (Up 5)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 105 (14th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 983 (11th safest)
More on Concord: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

The eighth safest city in America for 2019 goes to Concord. Let's see why.

There were only 116 violent crimes here last year -- which is basically 0 for the average citizen. And there were only 1,079 property crimes to boot.

Cary, NC
Source: Flickr User James Willamor | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility
9.5
/10

Population: 178,600
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 5)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 79 (7th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 1,105 (21st safest)
More on Cary: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

Cary, North Carolina? Now, since I live so close, I figured I might as well investigate and see what's going on and why Cary is so safe.

Cary is quite a gem. And so safe. You have only a 1 in 1,500 chance of being the victim of a major crime when you live here. There's been 8 murders here since 2002, which is very low for a city that's nearly 200,000 in population. You have only a 1 in 93 chance of being robbed here. For comparison, in Memphis, Tennessee, America's most dangerous city, you have a 1 in 30 chance of being robbed every year. That's three times higher.

You hardly ever see a Cary police car driving around. We spotted two sitting in a vacant lot for some reason.

As you drive through Cary, it seems safe enough. The supermarket looks safe. The laundromat feels safe. So does the pottery place. The African and Caribbean Market? Safe. Walmart feels safe. Even the Park N Shop looks safe. The mall is...empty. People in Cary must be Prime members or something.

The thing about Cary that is annoying is the people here are pretty rude, snobby and self entitled. They're mostly wealthy, and come from the northeast - places like New York, Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Draw your own conclusions.

Statistically, the number of crimes that happen in this Raleigh suburb is off the charts low. Like, nothing ever happens here but peace and quiet low. Is it boring? Perhaps. But can you leave your door unlocked at night? You betcha.

Meridian, ID
Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility
9
/10

Population: 132,522
Rank Last Year: 17 (Up 8)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 140 (26th safest)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 630 (2nd safest)
More on Meridian: Real Estate | Crime Report | Cost Of Living

And just making it into the top ten for 2024 is Meridian.

But we know they don't take this spot for granted -- Meridian residents can attest that their home town deserves to be the on list.

In total, there were 186 violent crimes and 836 property crimes in Meridian; that's really good for a place of 132,000 people and definitely something to be happy about looking forward into the New Year.

Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In America

Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In America

How we calculated the safest cities in America

While there are surveys and public polls on the safest cities in a state, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the hard numbers from the FBI's most recent report of crime (Sept 2023). Specifically, we analyzed the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of property crimes and violent crimes in each city per year. 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 a total of 1290 crimes committed in Naperville which had a reported population of 148,929. That means the number of crimes per capita is 0.0087, which translates into a 1 in 115 chance of being the victim of a crime.

We only looked at cities that have populations of more than 100,000 people reported to the FBI in 2022. This left us with a total of 312 of the biggest cities in America to rank.

We ranked each city for each criteria from 1 to 312 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 America."

The safest city, based on our criteria, is Naperville. The most dangerous city in America? Memphis, where residents had a 1 in 10 chance of being the victim of a crime.

We updated this report for 2024. This is our tenth time ranking the safest cities in America.

Summary: The Safest Cities In The USA

Looking at the data, you can tell that Naperville is as safe as they come, according to science and data.

The safest cities in the United States are Naperville, IL, Fishers, IN, Carmel, IN, Simi Valley, CA, Allen, TX, Port St. Lucie, FL, Thousand Oaks, CA, Concord, NC, Cary, NC, and Meridian, ID.

But as most people would agree, almost every place here has its safe and not safe parts. So just make sure you're informed ahead of time.

Here's a look at the most dangerous cities in America according to the data:

  1. Memphis
  2. Tacoma
  3. Pueblo
For more reading, check out:

Safest Cities In The United States For 2024

Rank City Population Violent Crimes Per 100k Property Crimes Per 100k
1 Naperville, IL 148,929 52 813
Fishers, IN 102,921 77 750
3 Carmel, IN 101,670 64 807
4 Simi Valley, CA 125,585 94 851
5 Allen, TX 108,218 97 920
6 Port St. Lucie, FL 228,855 116 761
7 Thousand Oaks, CA 124,862 57 1,106
8 Concord, NC 109,660 105 983
9 Cary, NC 178,600 79 1,105
10 Meridian, ID 132,522 140 630
11 Gilbert, AZ 277,123 116 1,016
12 Mckinney, TX 208,415 114 1,037
13 Cape Coral, FL 199,503 127 1,067
14 League City, TX 116,511 108 1,284
15 Coral Springs, FL 135,027 121 1,232
16 Frisco, TX 218,962 102 1,337
17 Elgin, IL 113,205 189 751
18 Irvine, CA 311,696 75 1,479
19 Santa Clarita, CA 220,765 163 1,091
Buckeye, AZ 110,002 186 1,037
21 St. George, UT 104,158 163 1,093
22 Surprise, AZ 154,128 118 1,403
23 Virginia Beach, VA 457,556 87 1,610
24 Pembroke Pines, FL 175,757 118 1,419
25 Sugar Land, TX 107,989 89 1,615
26 Provo, UT 114,120 147 1,399
27 Stamford, CT 136,936 192 1,169
28 Sandy Springs, GA 106,747 138 1,496
29 Pearland, TX 125,894 92 1,709
30 Sterling Heights, MI 132,393 205 1,168
31 Miramar, FL 143,470 243 1,045
32 Bend, OR 104,649 150 1,586
33 Elk Grove, CA 180,372 201 1,311
34 Broken Arrow, OK 118,683 155 1,609
35 Peoria, AZ 197,894 195 1,381
36 New Braunfels, TX 107,017 187 1,413
37 Olathe, KS 144,646 223 1,207
38 Orange, CA 138,846 129 1,725
39 Yonkers, NY 208,100 309 916
40 Jersey City, NJ 276,300 220 1,384
41 Aurora, IL 197,709 333 216
42 Murrieta, CA 114,655 273 1,245
43 Hialeah, FL 234,235 190 1,644
44 Glendale, CA 188,599 150 1,826
45 Fontana, CA 212,730 287 1,287
46 Clovis, CA 125,348 188 1,733
47 Carrollton, TX 133,610 206 1,660
48 Menifee, CA 109,673 289 1,372
49 Chandler, AZ 281,373 182 1,807
50 Goodyear, AZ 107,212 168 1,860
51 Plano, TX 289,847 158 1,896
52 Palm Bay, FL 116,897 280 1,514
53 Laredo, TX 256,973 316 1,285
54 Roseville, CA 155,448 163 1,884
55 El Paso, TX 678,232 313 1,379
56 Carlsbad, CA 115,531 208 1,771
57 Huntsville, AL 218,897 298 1,506
58 Lee's Summit, MO 103,976 138 2,097
59 Chula Vista, CA 277,976 350 1,277
60 Alexandria, VA 150,957 186 1,951
61 Nampa, ID 111,501 351 1,267
62 Santa Rosa, CA 175,999 339 1,359
63 Grand Prairie, TX 199,663 202 1,888
64 Quincy, MA 101,434 397 1,090
65 Mcallen, TX 145,510 195 1,951
66 College Station, TX 121,618 203 1,925
67 Rochester, MN 121,534 222 1,872
68 Boca Raton, FL 101,583 202 1,964
69 Ann Arbor, MI 120,549 307 1,716
70 Bridgeport, CT 148,395 408 1,241
71 Richardson, TX 115,771 158 2,271
72 Centennial, CO 105,849 197 2,109
73 Round Rock, TX 127,349 168 2,303
74 Temecula, CA 111,611 156 2,375
75 Dearborn, MI 107,197 281 1,920
76 Vacaville, CA 103,486 314 1,855
77 Joliet, IL 150,545 511 1,018
78 Henderson, NV 325,332 302 1,918
79 Escondido, CA 150,072 345 1,795
80 Davie, FL 107,988 243 2,264
81 Scottsdale, AZ 245,886 214 2,355
82 Huntington Beach, CA 194,618 253 2,242
83 Corona, CA 161,946 216 2,402
84 Lewisville, TX 113,568 294 2,205
85 Lowell, MA 113,277 401 1,747
86 Overland Park, KS 196,626 222 2,394
87 Sunnyvale, CA 148,739 219 2,456
88 Green Bay, WI 106,916 426 1,724
89 El Cajon, CA 104,693 468 1,608
90 Rio Rancho, NM 107,435 457 1,671
91 Fort Wayne, IN 267,791 262 2,387
92 Garden Grove, CA 169,157 310 2,191
93 El Monte, CA 104,695 383 1,869
94 Mesa, AZ 513,116 427 1,769
95 North Las Vegas, NV 284,422 421 1,774
96 Charleston, SC 152,324 374 1,889
97 Ontario, CA 180,004 323 2,129
98 Warren, MI 137,138 488 1,658
99 Denton, TX 154,230 288 2,380
100 West Jordan, UT 115,900 333 2,155

Safest Cities By State

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HomeSnacks is based in Durham, NC.

We aim to deliver bite-sized pieces of infotainment about where you live.

We use data, analytics, and a sense of humor to determine quality of life for places across the nation.

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