Nevada’s 5 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.

In our latest State of Safety survey, 48% of respondents in Nevada reported concern for their safety. This is about the same as the national average of 50%. This may be due to crime rates in the state that are above the national average. Even so, violent crime has dropped year over year and the safest cities saw only a fraction of the state rates for both crime categories.

Although Nevada’s crime rates have historically been higher than national averages, violent crime has been declining. In fact, violent crime in Nevada has been dropping for the past four years, and this year went from 4.6 incidents per 1,000 residents to 4.3. Unfortunately, that's still higher than the national average of 4.0.

When it comes to property crime, the state isn't doing so well. While it dropped below the national average the year before, this year, it's back above it. It went from 19.3 incidents per 1,000 people to 23.0. The national average this year is 19.3.

Though violent crime dropped year over year, Nevadans are still very concerned about it. In fact, concern rose 8% from the year before and is 17% higher than the national average.

• 57% of Nevadans said they were concerned about violent crime (US 49%).
• 9% said they had experience with violent crime, which is the same as the year before.
• Nevada ranks thirteenth in states with the highest violent crime rate.
• Aggravated assault is the most prevalent violent crime in Nevada, making up 64% of all reported incidents, compared to 72% nationally.
• Like most states, murder is the least common violent crime in Nevada, tied with the national average of 2%.
• 47% say they use some kind of personal safety protection like pepper spray—higher than the national average of 39%. 
• Pocket knives are the most popular form of personal protection in the state, with almost half of the respondents saying they use one (40%).
• 44% say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic, the same as the national average.

• 42% of Nevada residents named gun violence as a safety concern—well above the US average of 47%.
• 11% of survey respondents reported experiencing gun violence in the 12 months prior to the survey—higher than the national average of 12%.
• There were 5 mass shootings in Nevada during the 2023 reporting year. The state had just as many mass shootings as the year before.
• 34% of Nevadans said they use a concealed firearm for protection (US 41%).

Property crime decreased each of the past three years before this one. That may be why the concern for property crimes dropped by 4%. Even so, experience with it has risen with the increase of property crime in the state.

• 49% say they worry about becoming a victim of property crime, compared to 50% across the US. That's down from 51% the year before.
• Property crime experiences rose from 16% in our last reporting year to 18%.
• Larceny-theft makes up 63% of all property crime in Nevada, compared to 72% nationwide. 
• Burglaries account for 17% of all property crimes—3 percentage points higher than the national proportion of 14%.
• 17% of survey respondents use no kind of security measure to protect their Nevada property (US 24%).
• The most popular form of property protection (42%) is a security system.
• 32% think the security of their property has been impacted by the pandemic (US 28%).

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.

• We couldn’t rank the safest cities in Nevada in the previous years due to limited information reported to the FBI. This is the first year we have enough information to rank the safest cities.
• 2 of the safest cities, Boulder City and Mesquite, reported zero murders.
• All of the top 5 safest cities reported fewer than 5 violent crimes in the year.
• The safest cities had 28% less violent crimes and 24% less property crimes than the rest of the state.

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

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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.