Maine’s 10 Safest Cities of 2022

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the eighth annual Safest Cities report.

See if your city made the full list.

Maine residents aren’t as concerned about their overall safety compared to the rest of the nation. Of those who call The Pine Tree State home, only 34% say they feel a high daily concern for their safety. And with crime rates well below the national and regional average, it’s easy to see why.

• Violent crime rates
• Property crime rates
• Interesting findings
• The Safest Cities
• Methodology
• How to make a safe home anywhere
• How other cities compare
• How other states compare

Maine’s violent crime rate landed at 1.1 this reporting year—the lowest in the nation. Aggravated assaults accounted for 54% of violent crime. The state’s property crime rate was 11.6, much lower than the national rate of 19.6. Larceny-theft accounted for 82% of property crime.

In our latest State of Safety survey, we found that 77% of Maine residents feel safe in their state compared to 55% of the US.

As far as biggest concerns go, Mainers saw a three-way tie between violent crime, property crime, and package theft—each at 31%. Yet, despite the tie, Mainers show less concern about these issues than other states in the US.

We did see a rise in firsthand experience from Maine residents who experienced violent crime (from 9% to 14%) and gun violence (from 4% to 10%) in the last year.

Around 28% of Maine residents we surveyed are concerned about gun violence. The concern takes a backseat to worries about violent crime, property crime, and package theft.

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

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

Maine has the lowest violent crime rate in the US. Overall, violent crime in the state dropped by 8% with around 1,500 violent crimes reported.

• Maine is one of 15 states that saw a drop in violent crime. 
• The total number of violent crime incidents reported among the safest cities was cut nearly in half year over year—this might be the fewest total violent crimes reported by any state’s safest cities.
• The number of Mainers surveyed that reported using some form of personal protection was 22%, with the US average coming to 34%.
• 34% of Mainers surveyed say their personal safety has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, below the US average of 44%.

Maine had no mass shooting incidences, compared to one the year before. Country-wide, there were 691 mass shootings.

• 40% of Mainers surveyed named gun violence their top safety concern (US 53%).
• 28% of those surveyed are most worried about a gun violence incident happening to them (US 38%).
• 30% of Maine residents worry about police violence daily (US 40%).
• 56% of those surveyed have confidence in law enforcement, which matches the national percentage.

Property crime has dropped steadily since 2019 in Maine, and each of its safest cities experienced less property crime than the rest of the state, region, and the national average.

• Maine has the fourth-lowest property crime rate in the US.
• 54% of those surveyed use some form of property protection (US 60%). 
• Guard animals are the most popular form of property protection and are used by 27% of those we surveyed.
• 20% say the security of their property has been affected by the pandemic (US 29%).

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.

• After 3 years on top, Cumberland was bumped to number 2 on the safest cities list by Kennebunk, which reported no violent crimes.
• Oakland rose the most, jumping 20 spots to land at number 9 on our list.
• Maine’s safest cities collectively reported fewer than 500 total crimes in the most recent FBI report.
• Every one of the safest cities reported fewer than 0.5 violent crimes per 1,000 people.
• 90% of the safest cities reported no murders, 90% reported no robberies, 50% reported no rapes, 50% reported no aggravated assaults.
• 2 cities (Kennebunk and Cumberland) reported 0 burglaries, and Cape Elizabeth saw 0 motor vehicle thefts. 
• An overwhelming majority of property crime was larceny-theft, with 382 instances reported in the safest cites. That number is down, though, from the year before when 395 were reported.

VC=Violent crime
PC=Property crime

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. One of the best ways to stop a burglary before it happens is to add a home security system.

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We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population as calculated using FBI data. To request a report of the remaining cities in your state, sign up for our email newsletter (we make it easy in a quick form below!) or email info@safewise.com with the subject line: Safest Cities Full Report.

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 2020.

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

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

FBI: Crime Data Explorer, Accessed March 8, 2022.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed January 24, 2022.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 8, 2022.

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