Maine’s 10 Safest Cities of 2023

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

See if your city made the full list.

Maine residents were more concerned about their overall safety in our 2023 report compared to the year before. This is curious since violent crime levels have remained the same and property crime rates have only risen slightly in the state.

Maine’s violent crime rate is the lowest in the nation. Aggravated assaults accounted for 48% of violent crime. The state’s property crime rate was 11.7, much lower than the national rate of 19.3. Larceny-theft accounted for 87% of property crime.

Maine has the lowest violent crime rate in the US—1.1 incidents per 1,000 people. Overall, violent crime stayed the same as the year before, with around 1,500 violent crimes reported.

• Residents' level of concern over violent crime rose 16%.
• Maine is one of 22 states that saw a drop in violent crime. 
• Maine's safest cities reported zero murders.
• The number of Mainers surveyed reporting using some form of personal protection was 37% (up from 22% the year before), with the US average coming to 39%.

Overall, most Mainers surveyed aren't concerned about gun violence. This is most likely due to the low violent crime rates.

• Mainers surveyed said they were 34% less concerned about gun violence than the national average.
• Mainers surveyed had 75% less experience with gun violence than the average American.
• 43% of Mainers said they carry a firearm for self-protection. (US 41%)

Property crime rose slightly from the year before, increasing from 11.6 property crimes per 1,000 people to 11.7. Still, those numbers are drastically lower than the national average of 19.3 per 1,000.

• Maine has the fifth-lowest property crime rate in the US.
• Firearms are the most popular form of property protection and are used by 34% of those we surveyed. 
• 22% say they use a security system to protect their homes (US 28%).
• Mainers surveyed are 22% less concerned about property crime than the rest of the nation.

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.

• Eliot climbed its way from fifth place to first place this year.
• Cape Elizabeth rose from third place to second place on our safest cities list and had the least property crimes out of the safest cities on our list.
• Hampden and Belfast were the only cities on our list with zero violent crimes.
• After being the top safest city the year before,  Kennebunk was knocked off the top 10 list. Oakland also fell off the list after jumping 20 spots to land at number nine on our list the year before.
• Maine’s safest cities collectively reported 21 total violent crimes in the most recent FBI report. 10 of those were aggravated assault.
• Each safest city reported fewer than 0.4 violent crimes per 1,000 people.
• An overwhelming majority of property crime was larceny-theft, with around 400 instances reported in the safest cites. 

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 email info@safewise.com with the subject line: Safest Cities Full Report.

NOTE: If your city is missing from our full report, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2021.

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• The State of Safety in America in 2022

FBI Crime Data Explorer, "Documents & Downloads." Accessed February 6, 2023.

• 2021 and 2020 Crime in the United States Annual Reports
  • Offenses Known to Law Enforcement
• 2021 NIBRS Estimation Tables

FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, "Offenses Known to Law Enforcement [2019]." Accessed February 6, 2023.

Bureau of Justice Statistics, "National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)." Accessed February 6, 2023.

US Census Bureau, "2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables." Accessed February 6, 2023.

US Census Bureau, "2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates Detailed Tables." Accessed February 6, 2023.

SafeWise, "2022 State of Safety survey." Accessed February 6, 2023.

Gun Violence Archive, "General Methodology." Accessed February 6, 2023.

Gun Violence Archive, "Past Summary Ledgers." Accessed January 3, 2023.

Gun Violence Archive, "Congress."

• 2022 totals: Accessed January 3, 2023.
• 2021 and 2020 totals: Accessed December 19, 2022.