Florida’s 50 Safest Cities of 2021

1. Marco Island
2. Parkland
3. Weston
4. Winter Springs
5. North Palm Beach
6. Oviedo
7. Cooper City
8. Safety Harbor
9. Minneola
10. Sweetwater

See if your city made the full list.

Florida is among the most concerned states in the country. Of our respondents from The Sunshine State, 59% said they feel daily concern for their safety. Only 49% said they feel safe in their state.

Florida was the fourth in the nation for highest levels of concern over package theft and COVID-19. Package theft affected 22% of our respondents, which explains why it’s the top concern in Florida.

When it comes to COVID-19 pandemic, the mood of Floridians felt anything but sunny. Of our survey respondents, 75% said they were concerned about the pandemic on a daily basis. And it doesn’t stop at simple concern. Over half (61%) said their personal security was affected by the pandemic and 44% say their property’s safety has been affected as well.

But while Floridians remain concerned for the safety of themselves and their property, crime rates in The Sunshine State remain on par with the rest of the country. Violent crime remained the same as last year and property crime rates have been dropping since 2019.

Daily levels of concern have risen year over year since 2019. Currently, 59% of Floridians feel concerned every day for their safety, ranking the state at number 6 in the nation for this criteria.

This year, we saw a 10% drop in Floridians who’ve reported experiencing property crime in the last 12 months. But of those same respondents, we saw the amount of those who experienced gun violence in the last year more than double.

We asked Floridians which crimes they worry may happen to them. See if Florida residents are concerned about the same crime issues as the rest of the country.

View the complete 2021 State of Safety report.

For the second year in a row, Floridian violent crime rates sit at 3.7, just above the national average. Yet Floridians remain highly concerned about violent crime. Of these concerns, gun violence is among the biggest.

• Aggravated assault was the most common violent crime recorded in Florida with over 1,400 cases in the safest cities and over 55,000 statewide.
• Floridians are some of the most concerned citizens in the US; that may be why 40% of Florida residents use some form of personal protection like pepper spray or stun guns (US 34%).
• 71% of Floridians said that gun violence is their top concern and 48% worry about being personally involved in a gun violence incident.
• Mass shooting incidents more than doubled from 15 to 34 in Florida from January 2020 to 2021.
• 46% of Florida residents worry about police violence daily.
• 61% of Floridians say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic.
• All 50 of the safest cities had violent crime rates below the state and national average.
• South Daytona’s violent crime rate went down 2 whole points, from 4.3 to 2.3.
• 27 of the safest cities had zero murders in the last year.
• Pembroke Pines had the most violent crime incidents in the last year (355) of any of the safest cities on our list.

Property crime is less of a concern for Floridians than other issues. Property crime in Florida and the South-Atlantic region has dropped steadily year over year since 2019. Florida also shows a higher amount of residents who use property protection like security cameras and security systems.

• Larceny-theft made up 82.7% of property crimes in the safest cities and 77.8% of property crimes in the state.
• 22% of Florida residents in our survey said they experienced package theft in the last year.
• Property crime is a top concern for 47% of the Floridians we talked to. Only 16% of these respondents experienced property crime in the last year, 10% less than last year.
• 68% of Floridians use some kind of property protection. Security cameras and security systems were the most popular in The Sunshine State.
• 44% of Florida residents say their property’s security was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

• Marco Island lands the top spot again for the second year in a row. The city saw a slight climb in violent crime, but property crime dropped in the last year.
• Parkland jumped from number 4 last year to number 2. The city saw a significant drop in property crime from last year, dropping from 7.1 incidents per 1,000 people to 5.4.
• There are two new cities on our list this year: Minneola and Fernandina Beach.
• Oldsmar and South Daytona both jumped 30 spots in the last year, tying for most improved. Both cities saw a huge drop in their property crime rates.
• 3 of the safest cities had fewer than 10 violent crime incidents in the last year. Of those 3, only our top pick Marco Island had under 100 property crime incidences.
• West Melbourne, Doral, and Palm Beach Gardens were the only three cities with property crime rates above the national average.

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

Whether your city made our list or not, we encourage everyone to be proactive about home security. Learn more about your home security options—and find out which companies we recommend for every budget and lifestyle in our roundup of the Best Home Security Systems.

We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population. 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 2019.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

• Best Home Security Systems
• Best Home Security Cameras
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• Burglary Stats & Facts
• The Most Burglarized City in Every State

FBI: Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “2019 Crime in the United States,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed November 18, 2020.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 15, 2021.

For definitions and more on data sources, see our methodology page.