Utah’s 10 Safest Cities of 2021

1. Spanish Fork
2. Syracuse
3. Kaysville
4. Bountiful
5. North Ogden
6. Pleasant Grove
7. Clinton
8. Springville
9. Farmington
10. Saratoga Springs

See if your city made the full list.

Utah is less concerned overall about crime and safety than most of the country, with the least-worrisome issues being gun violence and the pandemic. Chances are people who live in one of Utah’s 10 safest cities have even less to worry about, especially when it comes to violent and property crime. 

Utah’s violent crime rate saw a slight uptick this year, rising from 2.3 incidents per 1,000 people in 2020 to 2.4. That still leaves the state in better shape than most of the nation—Utah’s violent crime rate is 35% lower than the national average.

The state’s property crime rate fell for the second consecutive year, dropping from 23.8 incidents per 1,000 people last year to 21.7 this year. Since 2019, The Beehive State’s property crime rate has plummeted 22%.

Utah has the second-lowest violent crime rate (2.4) in the Mountain region, behind Idaho and Wyoming that are tied for the lowest rate at 2.2 incidents per 1,000 each. The Beehive State has the third-lowest property crime rate (21.7) in the region, behind Idaho with 12.2 and Wyoming with 15.7 incidents per 1,000.

Utahns are about 23% less worried about crime and safety than Americans in most other states—and 66% say Utah is a safe state to call home. Survey respondents also reported fewer personal experiences with all types of crime this year.

Even though run-ins with property crime fell 36% year over year, Utahns still had more property crime experiences than most of the country—20% versus 18% nationwide. In general, Utahns' levels of concern line up with their personal experiences of crime.

• 46% worry about package theft happening to them, and 27% reported a package theft in the past 12 months. Both the level of concern and the reported experience are above national averages (45% and 20%, respectively).
• Reported experience with gun violence fell from 9% to just 2% this year (the national average is 8%).
• Utahns’ concern about gun violence happening to them is 32% below the national average of 38%.
• 54% of Utahns think crime is increasing versus 7% that think it’s decreasing. Across the US, 66% think crime is on the rise and 8% think it’s in decline.
• Utah has the eleventh-lowest level of daily concern about crime and safety in the country.

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

View the complete 2021 State of Safety report.

Experience with violent crime dropped from 15% last year to just 5% in this year’s survey—despite the state’s violent crime rate rising by 4%. When it comes to which crime Utahns fear could happen to them, gun violence and violent crime are the least worrying.

• Utah reports 1.3 fewer violent crime incidents per 1,000 people than the national average.
• The violent crime rate in the safest cities (0.8) is 67% lower than the statewide rate of 2.4 incidents per 1,000 people.
• Robberies, murders, and aggravated assaults each make up a smaller percentage of violent crimes in Utah than they do across most of the country.
• Rape makes up a significantly higher percentage of violent crimes in Utah than it does nationally (24% versus 8% nationwide), although varying definitions of rape may contribute to the disparity.
• 27% of survey respondents use some form of personal protection like a stun gun or pepper spray (US 34%).

• 41% named gun violence their top safety concern (US 53%), making it the biggest daily worry in Utah—5 percentage points higher than Utah’s overall daily concern about safety.
• Despite high daily concern, only 26% of Utahns are most worried about a gun violence incident actually happening to them (US 38%).
• Utah saw 1 mass shooting incident in 2020, and there were none in 2019.
• Officer-involved shooting incidents in Utah increased from 20 in 2019 to 36 in 2020—an 80% jump year over year.
• 37% of survey respondents say they worry about police violence daily (US 40%), and 63% have confidence in law enforcement (US 56%).

Property crime continues to decrease in The Beehive State, but it’s the most-worrisome crime statewide. In fact, property crime as a whole, and package theft specifically, are the crimes Utahns most fear happening to them.

• 44% are concerned about property crime happening to them—2 percentage points higher than the national average of 42%.
• Utah’s property crime rate is 3% higher than the US, but it’s closer to the national average than any time in the past 3 years.
• The property crime rate in Utah’s safest cities (10.2) is over 50% lower than the national property crime rate (21.1).
• Larceny-theft is the most prevalent property crime in Utah, making up 78% of all reported property crime—5% higher than the proportion nationally.
• Burglary is less common in Utah than throughout the country, accounting for 13% of all property crime in the state, versus 16% of all property crime in the US.
• 57% of survey respondents use some form of property protection (US 60%), with firearms used most often.
• 18% say the security of their property has been affected by the 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.

• 35 cities met criteria to be considered for ranking.
• We named 10 safest cities in Utah this year, versus 20 in previous years, due to the smaller overall number of cities reporting to the FBI.
• Spanish Fork moved up from second place to claim the title of safest city in Utah for the first time.
• 6 cities improved in rank this year, and 2 (Kaysville and North Ogden) held onto their spots for the second year in a row.
• Only 2 cities fell in ranking year over year: Farmington and Saratoga Springs.
• There was only 1 murder reported among the safest cities, in Springville.
• 70% of the safest cities reported 25 or fewer total violent crimes.
• The violent crime rate among the safest cities is 67% lower than the statewide violent crime rate.
• The property crime rate among the safest cities is 53% lower than the statewide property crime rate.
• No safest city reported fewer than 100 property crimes, reflecting the state’s higher overall property crime rate. Syracuse reported the fewest property crimes, with 196 total.

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.

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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.