Mississippi’s 5 Safest Cities of 2020

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the sixth annual Safest Cities report. Here are the 5 Safest Cities in Mississippi for 2020. See if your city made the list.

If you live in the Magnolia State, you might experience higher levels of concern about your safety than people from other states. Fortunately, crime rates are falling statewide, especially in this year’s list of the safest cities in Mississippi.

See all of Mississippi’s safest cities of 2020.

Our 2020 State of Safety study revealed that 52% of Mississippi residents feel high concern about safety on a daily basis. That’s six percentage points higher than the national average of 46%.

View the complete 2020 State of Safety report.

Higher levels of concern might be tied to increased experience with crime. Reports from those who've experienced a crime took big jumps across the board—even though crime rates went down statewide.

Mississippi’s violent crime rate of 2.3 incidents per 1,000 is below the national rate of 3.7. But the state’s property crime rate (24.0) is two points higher than the national rate (22.0). Both of those rates saw drops year over year, with property crime decreasing by nearly four incidents per 1,000 people.

Being robbed on the street is the most feared violent crime in the Magnolia State. Yet when it comes to which crimes people feel are most likely to happen, murder by a stranger takes the lead.

• 46% indicated they worry most about being robbed on the street. That’s eight points higher than the national average of 38%. 
• Robbery accounted for 38% of all violent crime reported by the safest cities and 23% across the state.
• The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, making up 57% of the incidents reported among the safest cities and 67% across the state.
• 32% reported that they think the violent crime they’re most likely to fall victim to is murder by a stranger, compared to 23% nationwide. 
• There were two murders reported among the safest cities equaling 1% of the total violent crime among those five cities. Statewide, there were 171 total murders reported, for 2% of the state’s total violent crime incidents.
• 18% experienced violent crime in the past 12 months, compared to 6% in 2019 and 12% across the country. 

Someone breaking into a home when the residents are out is the top property crime concern and the crime Mississippi feels is most likely to actually happen.

• 72% expressed high concerns about a break-in when no one is at home. That’s a full 10 points higher than the national level of concern (62%). 
• Half of survey participants also thought a break-in when there’s no one home is the most likely crime that could happen to them, compared to 38% nationwide. 
• Burglary was the second most prevalent property crime, making up 13% of all incidents in the safest cities and 29% across the state. 
• Larceny-theft was the most common property crime in Mississippi, accounting for 82% of all property crime in the safest cities and 65% statewide. 
• 21% of respondents have a security system to protect their property, just under the national average of 24%.
• Firearms are the most common security measure used in Mississippi, with 44% claiming that method of protection. Nationwide, 28% use firearms to protect their property.
• 19% use no form of security, which is 10 points below the national average of 29%.
• 32% experienced a property crime in the past 12 months, which is double what was reported last year and higher than the national average of 26%.

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

• The top two cities, Madison and Brandon, held onto their top billing status for the third consecutive year. 
• Clinton is a new city this year, nabbing the third spot on our list and showing the lowest violent crime rate (0.6 ) on the list—but a higher property crime rate (21.4) kept it from number one.
• Horn Lake and Southaven each dropped one place this year, but still remain in the top five.
• Three cities (60%) kept the property crime rate lower than the national average and four (80%) stayed below the state rate.
• Every city on the list beat both state (2.3) and national (3.7) violent crime rates.
• Clinton had the fewest total violent crimes with 15 incidents reported.
• In regard to property crime, Southaven exceeded both state (24.0) and national (22.0) rates at 29.8 incidents per 1,000.
• Brandon had the lowest property crime rate at 7.7 incidents per 1,000.

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 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.

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.

FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, “2018 Crime in the United States”
SafeWise, “2020 State of Safety”
US Census Bureau, “American Fact Finder”