Arkansas’s 20 Safest Cities of 2020

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the sixth annual Safest Cities report. Here are the 20 Safest Cities in Arkansas for 2020. See if your city made the list.

Arkansas’s violent crime rate is nearly two percentage points higher than the national average, and Arkansas residents report more personal experience with violent crime than most of the country. But residents aren’t more worried about their personal safety—especially in the state’s safest cities.

See which cities are Arkansas’s 20 safest in 2020.

In our 2020 State of Safety report, 47% of Arkansas respondents said they are concerned about their safety every day. That’s 1% above both the national average this year and the state’s overall level of concern last year.

View the complete 2020 State of Safety report.

Despite higher personal experience with both violent and property crime, overall crime rates decreased year over year. Violent crime in the state moved from 5.7 incidents per 1,000 people to 5.4, and property crime improved from 31.4 to 29.1 incidents per 1,000.

Unfortunately, that still leaves Arkansas higher than national crime rates (3.7 for violent crime and 22.0 for property crime)—but things are trending in the right direction.

Violent Crime in Arkansas: Fear vs. Reality

Arkansas residents aren’t overly concerned about violent crime, but the crime they’re most worried about is one of the least likely to happen.

• Murder by a stranger is the top violent crime concern in the state, with 48% claiming high or very high concern. Nationally, only 36% named murder a high daily concern.
• Among the safest cities in Arkansas, there were zero murders reported in 2018.
• Statewide there were 216 murders reported in 2018—just 1% of all violent crimes reported in the state.
• State of Safety participants feel the most likely violent crime is physical assault by a stranger.
• Aggravated assault made up 64% of all violent crime reported among the safest cities, and it accounted for 76% of all violent crime statewide.
• Arkansas tied with Louisiana for the state with the third-highest personal experience of violent crime over the past 12 months.

Property Crime in Arkansas: Fear vs. Reality

Break-ins are the biggest property crime concern in Arkansas—68% cited it as their top fear, compared with 58% nationwide. Despite that concern, less than 25% of Arkansas respondents reported using a home security system to deter intruders.

• There were a total of 519 burglaries reported among the safest cities, making up 23% of the property crimes reported.
• Nationwide, burglary accounted for 17% of all property crime, and in Arkansas it was 22% of all property crimes reported.
• Property being stolen was named the most likely crime to occur.
• Larceny-theft was 72% of all crime reported among the safest cities, and 70% of all property crime throughout the state.
• 24% of people surveyed use a home security system, but the most prevalent forms of protection are guard dogs (46%) and firearms (42%).
• 23% of Arkansas participants don’t use any form of protection or security for their home, despite 34% reporting a personal experience with property crime in the past year.

A Closer Look at Arkansas’s Safest Cities of 2020

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• Cave Springs leaped from number 55 last year to the state’s number one safest city of 2020.
• There were only 33 total crimes reported in Cave Springs, and just one was a violent crime.
• One new city joined the list this year, Haskell.
• Thirteen cities (65%) improved in rank this year, and four cities (20%) dropped in rank.
• All cities came in below the state’s violent crime rate of 5.4 incidents per 1,000.
• Half of the safest cities reported fewer than two violent crimes per 1,000 people.
• All of the safest cities are below both the state’s property crime rate of 29.1, and the national rate of 22.0.
• Half of the cities saw fewer than 10 property crimes per 1,000 residents, and 75% had fewer than 100 total property crimes reported.
• Greenwood, the second safest city in Arkansas, reported the lowest property crime rate (3.9).

The 20 Safest Cities in Arkansas

How We Determined the Safest Cities

Learn how we identified the safest cities on our methodology page.

How to Make a Safe Home Anywhere

Whether your city made our list or not, we recommend adding extra security to your home with monitored security services provided by the nation’s leading home security providers.

To learn more about your home security options, check out SafeWise’s picks for Best Home Security Systems.

Didn’t Find Your City in the Top 20?

We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, which is based on the median population of the state. See how the remaining cities ranked in the list below.

NOTE: If you don’t see your city on the list, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2018.

Sources:

FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, “2018 Crime in the United States”
SafeWise, “2020 State of Safety”
US Census Bureau, “American Fact Finder”
BestPlaces, “Find a Place Search Tool”