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Top 10 Safest Cities in the U.S.

house, home, housing, residential

house, home, housing, residential2020 has posed new safety concerns across the country—from spikes in COVID-19 cases, to recent wildfires, storms, and other natural disasters. Still, problems like crime and financial safety continue to be cause for concerns for many cities.

WalletHub recently released a report [1] which analyzes data from 182 U.S. cities, including 150 of the nation’s most heavily populated cities. The report gave each city a safety score and ranked them in multiple categories, including Home and Community Safety, Natural Disaster Risk, and Financial Safety. 

The Home and Community Safety category consists of data such as the average COVID-19 cases in the last seven days per 100,000 residents as well as data for assaults, thefts, and other crimes.

Each city’s natural disaster risk was determined based on the risk level of a variety of different disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters.

Lastly, WalletHub analyzed each city’s financial safety, which was calculated based on the unemployment rate, the share of the population that is uninsured, debt-to-income ratio, poverty rate, and other financial data.

Taking all of this information into consideration for each city, here are the top 10 safest cities in the U.S. in 2020:

 

1. Columbia, Maryland

Columbia has an overall safety score of 84.52. It ranked in fourth place for Home and Community Safety and seventh in the Financial Safety category.

2. South Burlington, Vermont

The second safest city is South Burlington, which has a safety score of 83.99 and ranked sixth in Home and Community Safety. South Burlington tied with Boise, ID, and Fargo, ND for third place for the lowest unemployment rate of all U.S. cities. It also came in fourth place for cities with the lowest percentage of an uninsured population. 

3. Plano, Texas

This Dallas suburb received a total safety score of 81.20 and ranked third in the Home and Community Safety category.

4. Nashua, New Hampshire

Nashua’s safety score is 80.80 and it ranked in 10th place for Home and Community Security. Nashua is also in second place behind Irvine, CA for the fewest assaults per capita.

5. Lewiston, Maine

Lewiston’s overall safety received a score of 80.59. It ranked in 12th place in the Natural Disaster Risk category.

6. Burlington, Vermont

Closely behind Lewiston is Burlington, which has a safety score of 80.55 and ranked in 17th place for Home and Community Safety.

7. Salem, Oregon

With an overall safety score of 80.03, Salem also ranked in 11th place for Home and Community Safety.

8. Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach ranked in 9th place for Home and Community Safety and has an overall safety score of 79.68.

9. Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the only state capital in the top 10 safest cities list. It has a safety score of 79.55 and is ranked in 13th place for the Financial Safety category.

10. Gilbert, Arizona

Lastly, Gilbert has a total safety score of 79. It is ranked 14th in Natural Disaster Risk and 16th in Financial Safety.