Oklahoma’s 20 Safest Cities of 2020

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the sixth annual Safest Cities report. Here are the 20 Safest Cities in Oklahoma for 2020. See if your city made the list.

People in the Sooner State express lower levels of concern about their safety, even though Oklahoma’s crime rates are higher than the national rates for both violent and property crime. But the state’s safest cities do much better than both state and national rates.

See if your city is one of Oklahoma’s 20 safest cities of 2020. 

Just 42% of Oklahoma participants in our 2020 State of Safety survey reported feeling high concern about safety on a daily basis, compared to 46% nationwide.

View the complete 2020 State of Safety report.

The violent crime rate in Oklahoma is 4.7—one full point above the national rate of 3.7 incidents per 1,000 people. The property crime rate is 28.8 incidents per 1,000, versus 22.0 across the country.

Despite higher crime rates, Oklahoma reported lower or average levels of experience with crime. 10% of the respondents to the State of Safety survey said they had a personal experience with violent crime in the past 12 months, which is two percentage points below the national average of 12%.

Those in Oklahoma who experienced a property crime in the past 12 months was 26%, matching the national average.

Violent Crime in Oklahoma: Fear vs. Reality

Being robbed on the street is the most concerning violent crime in Oklahoma, and it’s also the crime respondents felt was most likely to happen to them.

• 34% said they felt the highest concern about being robbed on the street, which is four points below the national average of 38%.
• 28% reported that they think robbery is the violent crime that’s most likely to actually happen to them, versus 27% nationwide. 
• Statewide, robbery accounts for 15% of violent crime in Oklahoma. In the safest cities, there were only seven total robberies reported, which is 7% of all violent crime in the safest cities.
• Aggravated assault was the most prevalent violent crime with 71 incidents reported among the safest cities. That works out to 72% of all violent crime in the safest cities. Across the entire state, aggravated assault made up 71% of all violent crime.

Folks in the Sooner State are most worried about someone breaking in when they’re not at home, but the property crime they think is most likely to happen is having property stolen.

• 60% said the most concerning property crime is a break-in when no one’s home, compared to 62% nationally. 
• Burglary was the second most prevalent property crime, making up 27% of all property crime in the safest cities and 24% across the state.
• 39% felt that having property stolen is the property crime that’s most likely to actually occur, versus 36% nationwide.
• Larceny-theft is the most common property crime in Oklahoma, totalling 65% of the state’s property crimes and 62% of the property crimes reported by the safest cities.
• 38% of Oklahoma respondents said they use a home security system—that’s 14 percentage points higher than the national average of 24%.
• 47% use firearms to protect their property, which is almost 20 points above the national average of 28%. 

Only 20% reported that they use no method of security at all, versus 29% across the country.

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.

• Elgin is Oklahoma’s safest city for the second consecutive year.
• Three new cities joined the list this year, Hennessey, Union City, and Antlers.
• 11 cities (55%) improved in rank year over year, with Healdton jumping 89 places to land at number 15. 
• Four cities (20%) dropped in rank this year, Verdigris, Hinton, Blanchard and Alva—but they still held onto a place in the state’s top 20 safest cities.
• Every city on the list beat both state (4.7) and national (3.7) violent crime rates and every city kept violent crime to fewer than two incidents per 1,000.
• Elgin had the fewest violent crimes reported, with 0, followed by Verdigris, Union City, and New Cordell that each reported just one.
• 18 cities (90%) reported fewer than 10 total violent crimes, and there were less than 100 total violent crimes reported among all of the safest cities.
• All cities did better than state (28.8) and national (22.0) property crime rates, with no city exceeding 15 incidents per 1,000 people. 
• Elgin had the fewest property crimes, with just one incident reported.
• 16 cities (80%) reported 50 or fewer total property crimes and 85% reported less than 100.

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”
• BestPlaces, “Find a Place Search Tool”