California’s Safest Cities of 2025

See crime rates for the safest cities.

When it comes to safety, daily concern continues to be the California state of mind, based on our latest State of Safety survey. From those we surveyed, 64% of Californians feel a high daily level of concern for their safety—the highest percentage in the nation and up from 50% the previous year. 

Californians were also more likely to have experienced a crime first-hand compared to the average American, so it's not surprising that they're among the most concerned about property crime, package theft, and violent crime. Just 41% of Californians surveyed say they feel safe in their state, the ninth lowest safety confidence in the nation.

We didn't have enough reliable data to calculate overall crime rates for The Golden State for our 2025 report. However, we can learn about trends through our State of Safety survey and safest cities.

According to our survey, Californians experience more crime than the average American but don't top the charts in any category. In the safest cities, property crime occurred about ten times more often than violent crime on average.

Find safety and security resources in California.

Property crime rates in California have consistently been higher than nationwide rates, and self-reported experiences with property crime went up year over year.

• 68% of Californians are highly concerned about property crime on a regular basis, making them the third most concerned state behind New Mexico (71%)  and Hawaii (69%). 
• California reported the seventh-highest level of personal experience with property crime. 33% of survey respondents said it happened to them in the 8 months prior to the survey (US 27%).
• 42% of Californians experienced package theft in the 8 months prior to the survey—the fifth-highest percentage in the country.
• Californians are the second most concerned state when it comes to package theft, with 66% saying they worry about it daily (US 52%).
• 45% of Californians surveyed said they adopted new security or safety measures in the 8 months prior to the survey—the highest percentage nationwide (US 37%).
• Security cameras are the most popular form of property security (48%), followed by guard dogs (30%) and security systems (29%).
• 16% of Californians say they use security doors or bars to protect their property compared to 9% nationwide.

Note: Our State of Safety survey was distributed in late summer 2024, before the 2025 L.A. wildfires.

The majority of Californians surveyed felt less worried about natural disasters than most Americans. Fires and smoke were the primary concern among our respondents.

• 64% of Californians said they worried about earthquakes, making it the most concerned state nationwide (US 18%).
• 70% of Californians worried about fires or smoke, making it the second most concerned state, behind Montana.
• Californians are among the most concerned about drought (CA 56%, US 32%). New Mexico leads the way at 59%.
• 20% of California residents worry about hurricanes (US 26%).
• California is the third-highest state with concerns about extreme heat/cold (CA 68%, US 56%).

Californians are highly concerned about their safety and have the crime experiences to back it up, so it's no surprise that percentage of people using personal protection increased from 29% to 36% year over year (US 35%).

• 72% of Californians said they are highly concerned about violent crime happening to them—that’s the highest level of concern in the US and up from 64% the previous year.
• 15% of survey respondents said they had a personal experience with violent crime in the 8 months prior to the survey, more than double the previous year's percentage of 7%.
• Of those who carry personal protection, 21% rely on pepper spray, with pocket knives being the second-most used at 12%.
• Despite rising levels of concern, the percentage of Californians who said they feel safe in the state increased from 30% to 41% year over year.

• Concern about gun violence increased 12 points year over year, from 54% to 66%.
• There were 35 mass shooting incidents in California in 2024. That's down from 51 in 2023 but the second-highest number in the US behind Illinois, which had 36.
• 17% of Californians use firearms to protect their property compared to the national average of 29%.
• Only 2% of Californians said they carry firearms for personal protection, tying with New Jersey for the lowest percentage of firearm use in the country.
• Californians worry less about gun violence compared to property crime and violent crime in general.

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.

• 153 cities met criteria to be considered for ranking.
• Rancho Santa Margarita is the safest city in California for the second year in a row. 
• 4 cities reported zero murders and zero rapes: Rancho Santa Margarita, Aliso Viejo, Yorba Linda, and Laguna Niguel.
• All the safest cities reported fewer than 2.2 violent crimes per 1,000 people.
• 6 cities saw declines in both property crime and violent crime rates: Lincoln, Poway, San Marcos, Elk Grove, Murrieta, and Menifee.
• Irvine has more than 316,000 residents, making its low per capita crime rates even more impressive.

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