Oregon’s 20 Safest Cities of 2021

1. West Linn
2. Sherwood
3. Lake Oswego
4. Monmouth
5. Newberg-Dundee
6. Canby
7. Keizer
8. Independence
9. Bend
10. Central Point

See if your city made the full list.

Oregonians feel less concerned for their safety than their fellow Americans. Only 39% expressed a daily level of high concern compared to 47% nationwide. But despite this lack of concern, only 40% said they feel generally safe within their state (one of the lowest percentages from our survey).

But that doesn’t mean residents of The Beaver State are worry free. 57% of the Oregonians we surveyed said they worry about the COVID-19 pandemic on a daily basis and 55% believe that crime is increasing.

The good news is property crime in Oregon has steadily dropped since 2019 and violent crime has stayed mostly flat over the last three years. And all but one of Oregon’s safest cities had violent crime rates far below the state and national average.

Compared to previous years, violent crime in Oregon has stayed roughly the same. It’s also the lowest violent crime rate in the Pacific region.

Property crime is slowly decreasing. Despite 22% of Oregonians experiencing package theft (US 20%), property crime has dropped more than two full percentage points to 27.3 in 2021.  

In Oregon, 39% of our survey respondents felt a daily level of high concern for their safety with package theft being the top concern. Our Oregon respondents also personally experienced less violent crime and gun violence than our respondents nationally.

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

View the complete 2021 State of Safety report.

Only 23% of Oregonians were concerned about violent crime, putting them at 46th in the US for concern over violent crime. Yet, even the safest cities in Oregon saw their fair share of crime. In fact, the 20 safest cities in The Beaver State accounted for 10% of the crimes statewide.

• Of the violent crimes committed, aggravated assault was the most common violent crime in Oregon with over 7,000 incidents reported.
• Rape in Oregon was almost double the national average and almost triple in the safest cities-with 300 cases in the safest cities and 1,778 across the state.
• 50% of Oregon residents said that gun violence was their top concern.
• There were 37 officer-involved shootings in Oregon in the last year, 5 more than in 2019.
• Relatedly, 41% of Oregon residents said they worry about police violence daily (US 40%). And 46% said they have confidence in law enforcement (US 56%).
• In September 2020, saw 122 gun violence incidents.¹

Oregon residents were more concerned with property crime than violent crime, which aligns with the state’s higher-than-average property crime rate. Of our survey respondents, 32% said they were most concerned with property crime and 41% said they were most concerned with package theft in particular.

• 11% of property crimes in Oregon happened in the 20 safest cities.
• Overall, Oregon saw a higher rate of motor vehicle theft than most of the nation with 13% per 1,000 people compared to 10% across the US.
• 27% of Oregonians say their property security has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (US 29%).
• Larceny-theft accounted for 83% of property crime within the 20 safest cities and 74% within the state’s property crimes.
• Burglary was down in Oregon at 13% of all property crime statewide compared to 16% nationwide.

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.

• West Linn holds its number 1 spot for the second year in a row.
• Of the safest cities in Oregon, 4 of them are newcomers to our list: Sherwood, Lebanon, Gladstone, and Albany.
• Rising 7 spots to numbers 6 and 7, Canby and Keizer, Oregon tied for most improved of the safest cities. Both cities saw sizable drops in property crime and modest drops in violent crime.
• 9 of last year’s safest cities dropped in rankings this year, with Helens and La Grande both falling 7 spots.
• 4 cities had property crime rates above the national average, but low violent crime rates kept them on the list.
• The safest cities see an average violent crime rate of 1.6 (Oregon 2.8) and a property crime average of 17 (Oregon 27.3).

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. Learn more about your home security options—and find out which companies we recommend for every budget and lifestyle in our roundup of the Best Home Security Systems.

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.

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City of Portland Police Bureau, “Gun Violence Statistics,” December 10, 2020. Accessed, December 16, 2020. 

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.