Oregon’s 20 Safest Cities of 2022

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the eighth annual Safest Cities report.

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 the survey year).

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 daily, 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 four years. And all but one of Oregon’s safest cities had violent crime rates far below the state and national average.

• Violent crime rates
• Property crime rates
• Interesting findings
• The Safest Cities
• Methodology
• How to make a safe home anywhere
• How other cities compare
• How other states compare

Compared to previous years, violent crime in Oregon has stayed roughly the same at 2.9 incidents per 1,000 people. Property crime, however, continues to slowly decrease this year from 27.9 per 1,000 to 26.6.

Within the Pacific region, Oregon has the second-lowest violent crime rate, just behind Hawaii (2.5) and tied with Washington (2.9). Oregon's property crime rate presents a different picture—it's the second-highest in the region, just below Washington state (27.3).

Compared to the national average, Oregon has a lower violent crime rate (US 4.0) and a higher property crime rate (US 19.6). Among all 50 states, Oregon has the twelfth-lowest violent crime rate and the seventh-highest property crime rate.

In Oregon, 39% of our State of Safety 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 2022 State of Safety report.

Only 23% of Oregonians were concerned about violent crime, tying with Vermont for lowest concern over violent crime in the US. 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.

• Although Oregon's violent crime rate hasn't changed in 3 years, the total number of incidents reported in the safest cities went down by over 100, with rape showing the steepest decline.
• Rape in Oregon was 1.3 times higher than the national average (10%), with the safest cities coming in at 1.8 times higher.
• Of the violent crimes committed, aggravated assault was the most common violent crime (69% of total) in Oregon with over 8,500 incidents reported.
• Murder in Oregon makes up a scant 1% of all violent crimes, about half of the national rate (US 2%). The 20 safest cities had an even lower number of murders (less than 1%) compared to the rest of the state.
• 35% of Oregonians use some form of personal protection (US 34%).
• 44% of survey respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their personal safety—matching the national average.

• 50% of Oregon residents said that gun violence was their top concern.
• 41% of Oregonians said they worry about police violence (US 40%) with 33% saying they are worried about a gun violence incident happening to them (US 38%).
• 46% of survey respondents said they have confidence in law enforcement (US 56%).
• There were 7 mass shootings in Oregon in 2021—a 250% increase over 2020 (2 incidents).

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, with 41% most concerned with package theft in particular.

• 11% of property crimes in Oregon happened in the 20 safest cities.
• Even though Oregon has the seventh-highest property crime rate in the US, it still saw a 4% decrease compared to last year—matching the national downward trend.
• Overall, Oregon saw a higher rate of motor vehicle theft (15%) than most of the nation (US 13%).
• This year, burglary in Oregon stayed at 13% of all property crime statewide compared to 16% nationwide.
• Larceny-theft accounted for 80% of property crime within the 20 safest cities and 73% within the state’s property crimes.
• The safest cities have some of the highest property crime rates among safest cities from any state, with 6 cities coming in above the national rate.
• 58% of Oregon residents use some form of property protection (US 60%).
• The top forms of property protection in Oregon were security cameras and firearms, which tied for first at 28% of responses.
• 27% of Oregonians say their property security has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (US 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.

• 46 cities met our criteria to be considered for ranking.
• West Linn tops our list for the third year in a row.
• 50% of the safest cities went up in rank compared to last year with Dallas (up 8 spots) and Lebanon (up 7 spots) showing the biggest improvement to land at 14 and 7 respectively.
• 3 cities maintained their rankings from last year: West Linn (1), Sherwood (2), and Forest Grove (15).
• There are 2 new cities in the top 20 this year: Milwaukie (6) and Ashland (17).
• 2 cities have populations over 100,000—a rarity among safest cities in any state—Hillsboro (population 111,146) and Bend (population 103,485).
• The violent crime rate in the safest cities is 1.7 incidents per 1,000 people—41% lower than the state rate (2.9).
• All of Oregon's safest cities reported violent crime rates of 3.0 or fewer—well below the national rate (4.0). West Linn had the lowest violent crime rate (0.4).
• 16 (80%) of the safest cities reported 0 murders this year with 17 (85%) reporting fewer than 100 violent crimes.
• The property crime rate in the safest cities is 18.8—29% lower than the state rate.
• Monmouth had the lowest property crime rate at 10.8, almost half the national rate (19.6).
• 3 cities reported fewer than 200 property crimes this year: Monmouth, Independence, and St. Helens.

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. One of the best ways to stop a burglary before it happens is to add a home security system.

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We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population as calculated using FBI data. To request a report of the remaining cities in your state, sign up for our email newsletter (we make it easy in a quick form below!) or email info@safewise.com with the subject line: Safest Cities Full Report.

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
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• Burglary Stats & Facts
• The Most Burglarized City in Every State

FBI: Crime Data Explorer, Accessed March 8, 2022.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed January 24, 2022.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 8, 2022.

For definitions and more on data sources, see our methodology page.