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Despite alarming headlines about rising violent crime and gun violence across the US, there are still plenty of hamlets that remain relatively immune to the crime trends plaguing America’s largest cities.
The 100 cities and towns that made our list this year bucked nationwide trends, showing a collective drop in both violent and property crime rates. Comparatively, the US violent crime rate jumped 5% year over year.
See if your city made the full list.
Over 60% of the cities on our list are new this year. Because FBI crime data relies on voluntary reporting from local jurisdictions, the number and demographics of the cities that report can vary widely from year to year.
This year there were several states that had fewer reporting cities than in previous years, leading to a lower median population threshold than in previous years. Last year, cities with populations below 17,375 were excluded from our list. This year, that threshold fell to 10,779, which opened the door to lots of newcomers. The median population of our 100 safest cities of 2022 is 19,638—nearly 10,000 below last year.
All signs point to yes. Last year, we saw a stagnant violent crime rate and rising property crime among our 100 safest cities. That anomaly alerted us to a potential nationwide uptick in violent crime—something the US hadn’t seen since 2016.
Unfortunately, that prediction was on the nose. America’s violent crime rate saw a jump year over year. But, happily, that’s not the case for our 100 safest cities of 2022—both violent and property crime rates fell among these towns year over year.
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The nationwide violent crime rate rose 5% year over year, from 3.7 incidents per 1,000 people to 4.0. Among the 100 safest cities, violent crime dropped from 0.30 incidents per 1,000 to 0.26.
There were 531 total violent crimes reported by the cities on our list, with four total murders. Compared to the 15 murders reported among the safest cities last year, that’s a 73% decline year over year. Nationwide, there was a 22% jump in murders.
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Last year’s rise in property crime per capita was unusual among the 100 safest cities, and it flew in the face of national trends. Property crime has declined every year across the US since 2002, and this year is no exception.
In the most recent FBI reports, property crime incidents declined both nationwide and among the 100 safest cities. The US saw a 7% drop in the national property crime rate, from 21.3 incidents per 1,000 people to 19.6. Property crime in the safest cities fell from 4.5 incidents to 3.1 per 1,000.
These cities did better when it came to pandemic-related crime trends as well. During 2020, the US saw a 9% spike in motor vehicle thefts (the highest numbers in over a decade), but the safest cities had a 23% drop.
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One thing that jumps out about the safest cities in America every year is the seemingly low population numbers. But, surprisingly, most of them are above the average size of an incorporated place in the US. About 76% of all American cities and towns have fewer than 5,000 residents—and only 4% have over 50,000.
A whopping 65% of the cities on our list hail from three Northeastern states: New Jersey (31), Massachusetts (22), and New York (12). When you throw in other cities from New England you get nine more—making 75% of the cities on our list from the Northeast. Imperial, California is the westernmost city that made the list. Rexburg, Idaho and Frederick, Colorado are the only other cities from the West.
Even though these cities seem small, many of them are suburbs of major metropolitan areas. Suburbs often benefit from close access to the perks of big city life without having the harsher realities follow them home at night. That provides a kind of insulation from many major crimes, especially violent crime, which is nearly non-existent in many of the cities that made our list.
There’s no denying that cities with bigger budgets can devote more resources to public safety and community support programs. The average median household income among the 100 safest cities is $128,445—almost double the national median household income of $67,521. Just 5% of the cities on our list (for which we have income data) are below the national median household income.
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While there’s no one thing that indicates if a city will report higher or lower numbers of crimes, we’ve noticed some things that stand out about the 100 cities on our list. Here’s a rundown of some of the most interesting factors we’ve uncovered during our analysis.
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VC= Violent crime, PC=Property crime
We calculated crime rates for every city in the country that met our population threshold of 10,779. 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 2020.
To identify the 100 safest cities in the country, we analyzed FBI crime report statistics and population data. The FBI data is from 2020 (the most recent year for which data was available). Our rankings were based solely on crime data; no other factors were included.
We started by pulling every city listed in the FBI’s 2020 Offenses Known to Law Enforcement database. We removed all cities with a population under 2,500 (rural/small town) and all cities under the median population of the remaining cities, which was 10,779. Cities that fell below the population threshold were excluded, along with cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI.
In the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force.
In the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Larceny-theft offenses involve the taking of money or property (like pick-pocketing), but with no force or threat of force against the victims.
We looked at the number of reported violent crimes in each city and the number of reported property crimes. To level the playing field, we calculated the rate of crimes per 1,000 people in each city. Both violent and property crime numbers were weighted equally. We also standardized violent and property crime for each state before weighting.
Consult our full methodology to learn more about how we rank the Safest Cities.
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.
Find out which companies we recommend for every budget and lifestyle in our roundup of the Best Home Security Systems—and learn the basics with our guide on Everything You Need to Know About Home Security.
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Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.
FBI: Crime Data Explorer, Accessed March 16, 2022.
FBI: Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “2019 Crime in the United States,” Accessed March 16, 2022.
US Census Bureau, Toukabri and Medina. “Latest City and Town Population Estimates of the Decade Show Three-Fourths of the Nation’s Incorporated Places Have Fewer than 5,000 People,” May 21, 2020. Accessed March 16, 2022.
US Census Bureau, “City and Town Population Totals: 2010–2019,” April 20, 2021. Accessed March 16, 2022.
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