Vermont’s 10 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.

Vermont’s overall level of concern about crime and safety plummeted from 41% to 18% this survey year—along with crime rates across the state. Vermont and its 10 safest cities continue to have some of the lowest crime rates in the country.

• 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

After a small surge last year, Vermont's violent crime rate returned to 2020 levels, dropping from 2.1 incidents per 1,000 people to 1.7. Vermont's property crime rate saw even more improvement by decreasing from 14.4 incidents per 1,000 people to 12.2—lower than the 2020 rate (12.8).

Within the New England region, Vermont has the third-lowest violent crime rate behind Maine (1.1) and New Hampshire (1.5). For property crime in the region, The Green Mountain State has the third-highest rate below Connecticut (15.7) and Rhode Island (12.5).

Vermont, like all of New England, typically has lower crime rates than the rest of the US. Among all 50 states, Vermont has the third-lowest violent crime rate and the fifth-lowest property crime rate.

Vermonters don’t dedicate a lot of energy to worrying about crime and safety. The Green Mountain State expressed 62% less daily worry about overall safety than the rest of the country, making Vermont the least-concerned state in the nation.

Historically, low concern makes sense, as Vermont always reports some of the lowest crime rates in the US. This holds true in this State of Safety survey year; the state saw a decrease in both violent and property crime. Respondents said they experienced less property crime and gun violence year over year, but experience with violent crime rose by one full percentage point.

Not surprisingly, 78% of Vermonters feel safe in their state, beating the national average by a whopping 42%. The crime issue that causes the most concern is property crime, tying with package theft as the crime Vermonters fear may happen to them. That fear’s not misplaced, as 22% of survey respondents had a package swiped in the 12 months preceding the survey—10% higher than the national average.

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

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

Vermont's violent crime rate this reporting year is the same as it was in 2019 and 2020—1.7 incidents per 1,000 people—making 2021's slight increase an outlier compared to long-term trends in the state. With the third-lowest violent crime rate in the nation, Vermonters’ concern about violent crime is 44% lower than most Americans.

• Vermont is one of 15 states that saw the violent crime rate decline since last year. It saw a 16% drop compared to last year—more than any other state.
• All of Vermont's safest cities reported violent crime rates below 1.5 incidents per 1,000 people.
• Aggravated assaults make up a bigger proportion of violent crime in Vermont than in the rest of the country—73% versus 70% nationwide. In the safest cities, assaults are just as prevalent, making up 72% of all reported violent crimes.
• Vermont sees far fewer robberies than most states. Robbery accounts for 19% of all violent crime in the US but just 6% in Vermont.
• 27% of survey participants use some kind of personal protection like a stun gun or pepper spray, compared to 34% nationally.
• 40% say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic, compared to 44% nationwide.

• Gun violence is by far the least-concerning crime issue in The Green Mountain State. Only 17% of survey respondents worry about falling victim to gun violence, versus 38% nationwide.
• 41% of Vermonters named gun violence their top safety concern (US 53%).
• There have been 0 mass shootings in Vermont in the past three years.
• 47% say they have confidence in law enforcement—nearly 10 percentage points lower than the national average of 56%.

Property crime saw a drop in Vermont this year, and Vermonters worry more about property crime than any other crime issue. The property crime rate in Vermont is 38% lower than the national average.

• Vermont’s property crime rate fell by 15% this year.
• Both car theft and burglaries are less common in Vermont than in most other states. Nationwide, car theft accounts for 13% of all property crimes, but it makes up just 3% in Vermont. This is the lowest in the nation and bucks national trends of increasing car theft during the pandemic.
• Burglaries make up 16% of all property crime in the US but only 13% in Vermont.
• 70% of the safest cities reported property crime rates below state levels.
• 53% of survey respondents use some kind of security measure on their property, with guard dogs or other animals being the most common (28%).
• Only 15% of respondents say the security of their property has been affected by the pandemic—nearly half the national 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.

• 26 cities met criteria to be considered for ranking.
• Hinesburg moved up a spot to claim the title of safest city after spending 2 years in the number 2 spot.
• Last year's top city, Castleton, dropped to third place.
• Middlebury (up 8 spots) and Northfield (up 7 spots) saw the biggest ranking jumps this year, moving up to positions 4 and 2, respectively.
• Colchester (population 17,129) is the largest city on the list and the only one with more than 11,000 people.
• Hinesburg has the lowest violent crime rate in the state at 0.2 incidents per 1,000 people—just a single reported violent crime.
• Vermont's safest cities had a collective violent crime rate of 0.8 incidents per 1,000 this year—8 cities reported fewer than 10 total violent crime incidents.
• Northfield has the lowest property crime rate in Vermont at just 2.6 incidents per 1,000 people.
• The safest cities had a collective property crime rate of 10.3 per 1,000—7 cities reported fewer than 80 total property crimes.

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 2020.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

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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.