Ohio’s 20 Safest Cities of 2021

1. Chester Township
2. Olmsted Township
3. Sagamore Hills
4. Clearcreek Township
5. Springboro
6. North Ridgeville
7. Poland Township
8. Hamilton Township, Warren County
9. Bay Village
10. Seven Hills

See if your city made the full list.

In our 2021 State of Safety survey, 53% of respondents in Ohio reported daily levels of high concern for their safety. While this is lower than last year's survey (56%), it's still six percentage points higher than the national average of 47%.

Ohioans reported fewer personal experiences with violent crime and property crime year over year but more experience with gun violence. Ohio's crime rates are below the US average, but the state's violent crime rate actually increased in the past year as the state's property crime rate went down. Ohio's 20 safest cities have only a fraction of the state rate for both categories of crime.

Although Ohio's violent crime rate is relatively low compared to most states, it had a small increase from 2.8 crimes per 1,000 people to 2.9 this year. The state's property crime rate follows recent downward trends across the nation by moving down from 21.8 per 1,000 people to 20.6.

Compared to other states in the East North Central region, Ohio is tied with Wisconsin for the lowest violent crime rate. But the state has the highest property crime rate in the region, just above Indiana (19.7).

Ohio's crime rates are lower than the national average, though the property crime rate is close to the US average. Among all 50 states, Ohio has the eighteenth-lowest violent crime rate and the twenty-fourth-lowest property crime rate.

A smaller percentage of residents in Ohio worried about their safety on a daily basis than last year, but the state remains above the national average for daily concern. Like most Americans, Ohioans' biggest crime worry is package theft. 

Reported experiences with violent crime and property crime declined since last year but there was a big uptick in experience with gun violence. Despite the drop in experiences with violent crimes and property crimes, Ohio residents tended to encounter more crime than the average American.

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

View the complete 2021 State of Safety report.

People in Ohio tend to feel slightly less safe in their home state than the average American. Ohioans are also generally more likely to say the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their personal safety. This could involve any number of factors like above-average experience with violent crime and gun violence or possibly the state's small increase in reports of violent crime. 

• 52% of people in Ohio reported feeling safe in their state compared to 55% of Americans.
• 16% of Ohio respondents reported having a personal experience with violent crime in the past 12 months—a 33% decrease from last year.
• Murder is the least-common violent crime in The Buckeye State, making up 2% of violent crimes (US 1%)—the state's 20 safest cities averaged 0.9%.
• Rape makes up 17% of violent crimes in Ohio (US 8%). The 20 safest cities have a higher rate at 23%.
• 40% of survey participants report using some form of personal protection like pepper spray—higher than the US average (34%).
• 54% of Ohioans say their personal safety has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 44% of Americans. This is toward the high end of the scale, which tops out at 61% with Florida.

• 67% of Ohio residents named gun violence as a top safety concern—well above the US average of 53%.
• 17% of survey respondents reported experiencing gun violence in the past 12 months—1.3 times higher than last year.
• There were 14 mass shootings in Ohio in 2019 and 25 in 2020.
• 47% of Buckeyes worry about police violence daily—higher than the US average of 40%.
• Despite above-average concerns over police violence, 60% of people in Ohio reported having confidence in law enforcement, above the US average of 56%.
• There were 82 officer-involved shootings in 2020, a 15% increase from 71 in 2019.

There was a slight improvement in personal encounters with property crime in Ohio this year, which fits with a similar decline in crime reports from law enforcement agencies. More Ohioans use a form of property protection than a typical American with notable ownership rates for both security cameras and security systems.

• 22% of Ohio residents reported personal experiences with property crime this year, which is a small decrease compared to last year (27%).
• Burglary accounts for 18% of all property crimes in The Buckeye State (the 20 safest cities average 12%), which is just above the national rate of 16%.
• 20% of respondents reported experiencing package theft—matching the US average.
• 73% of people in Ohio use some form of property protection. This is substantially higher than the 62% national average.
• The top forms of property protection in Ohio this year were security cameras and security systems with 37% of survey respondents claiming to use one or the other. These adoption rates are higher than the national averages of 28% for security cameras and 25% for security systems.
• 40% of respondents say the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the security of their property—this is higher than the US average of 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.

• Chester Township claims the top spot this year with the state's lowest violent and property crime rates.
• 2 new cities joined the list this year for the first time—Chester Township and Bay Village.
• 65% of the safest cities from last year stayed on the list with 4 of these holding the same rank—North Ridgeville, Seven Hills, North Royalton, and Brunswick.
• Of the top 20, Perrysburg made the biggest jump in rankings compared to last year. It moved up 25 spots from 36 to 11.
• 3 cities reported 0 violent crimes this year—Chester Township, Sagamore Hills, and American Township.
• All of the safest cities reported fewer than 20 total violent crimes this year, with 80% reporting 10 or fewer.
• There was only a single murder among the safest cities.
• 65% of the safest cities reported less than 100 total property crimes this year.

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. 

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
• Best Video Doorbell Cameras
• 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.