In this piece, we will take a look at the 30 safest places to live in the U.S. in 2023. For more cities, head on over to 10 Safest Places to Live in the U.S. in 2023.
The rise in social media bombards users of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook daily with reports of violence and crime. This creates a perception that perhaps crime is increasing even as society prospers, creating a general sense of unease all around. At the same time, it’s important for everyone to be aware of any growing trends so that laws and policies can be drafted for the most pressing issues before things spiral out of control.
Along with social media, the coronavirus pandemic has altered society and the economy in a major manner at least for the time being. In addition to slowing down economic growth and putting some companies out of business, the pandemic also saw homicides rise in America. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program shows that between 2019 and 2020 homicides rose by a stunning 28.9% in aggregate over the U.S. This increase was distributed across Blue and Red states, giving it a rather somber nonpartisan touch. Within the four major continental U.S. regions, i.e. the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West, the Northeastern and Midwestern areas were the leaders in homicide growth, with killings growing at near uniform rates of 36.1% and 36.2% in them, respectively.
Within the five most populous U.S. cities, namely New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix, Chicago and New York led the pack for their murder rate growth, as they saw homicides grow significantly by 56.7% and 46.7%, respectively between 2019 and 2020. However, between 2020 and 2021, the picture reversed, with Houston and Los Angeles posting significant growth in homicides, which stood at 16.3% and 13.7%, respectively. But even as murders grew during the pandemic, you should be relieved to know that while murders in America per 100,000 people jumped to 6.5 in 2020, this figure is still significantly lower than 9.8 in the early 1990s. Additionally, violent crimes per 100,000 people have been on a consistent decline since 1990 as well, since while they stood at 758.2 in 1991, figures for 2020 show that they have almost halved, with a rate of 398.5.
The crime problem in Chicago has also had its effect on the hedge fund industry, with Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investments widely publicizing his firm’s decision to move offices from the city. In fact, in a recent interview given to Bloomberg, Mr. Griffin explained the decision to change offices and shift his team to Florida, when he outlined the safety concerns his team had felt in Chicago, as he revealed:
I have a number of colleagues in Chicago, from Chicago’s home. And for a litany of reasons they’re not gonna live Chicago, and frankly, I’m grateful for them being on the team here at Citadel. We’re gonna have to move offices in Chicago to a safer location. I mean, where our office is is literally not where want to be because of just pure safety concerns. I mean, when you have hooligans lining the streets, throwing things at ongoing cars outside the front door of your office, you know you’re in the wrong part of town. The challenge is, is there’s not many right parts of town left in Chicago. And it’s a serious problem, if I put a video up here you’d almost want to cry because that can’t be America.
Moving towards the reasons behind the growth in crime during the pandemic, Justin Nix, a professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska believes that reasons including stress, easy availability of guns, and reduced trust in law enforcement are all to blame. While the latter might sound a bit counterintuitive, Nix explains that in the wake of mass shootings not only are police officers less likely to take action against crime (for the fear of going viral on social media), but citizens are also less likely to call 911 in case of an emergency since they do not want to contribute to the problem of police violence.
According to the professor, and as reported by Voice of America:
“[They think] ‘If I call the police and they show up and they end up abusing this person or using excessive force on this person, I don’t want to contribute to what I see as a problem, so it’s safer for me to just not call 911,’” Nix says. “If people don’t report being victimized or report seeing other people victimized by criminal activity, then a lot of that will go unnoticed by the police.”
Finally, not only does crime not pay, but it also leads to trillions in economic costs. According to the University of Chicago, direct and indirect costs of crime which include factors such as transfers from victims to criminals, law enforcement costs, costs of private deterrence, and the time spent in avoidance and recovery lead to a stunning $4.71 trillion to $5.76 trillion in costs to America in a year.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at the top safest cities to live in America.
Our Methodology
We used data from the FBI UCR program to compile our list. The latest data, updated in September 2022, is for 2021 and it lists down crimes in all American cities. However, several cities reported zero crimes, and to narrow down our analyses we filtered it by including only those that have a population higher than 300,000 and at least one crime reported. After this, the total number of crimes was divided by the population to calculate crime per person. This was then multiplied by 100,000 to determine crime committed per 100,000 people. The top 35 cities with the lowest crime rate per 100,000 are listed below.
35 Safest Places to Live in the U.S. in 2023
35. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 11,589
Milwaukee, Wisconsin is Wisconsin’s largest city in terms of population, with close to six hundred thousand residents in 2021.
34. Kansas City, Kansas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 11,552
Kansas City is Kansas’ business hub and has many companies such as Ford, Citigroup, and Garmin. Larceny and property crime are the most frequent crimes in the region.
33. Albuquerque, New Mexico
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 11,502
Albuquerque is New Mexico’s economic hub and one of its largest cities. The city reported 64,800 crimes in 2021, with larceny and property crimes being the most widely reported.
32. Detroit, Michigan
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 11,099
Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River and also one of the most populous cities in the U.S. However, it has relatively higher rates of aggravated assault compared to other cities.
31. Minneapolis, Minnesota
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 10,967
Minneapolis is Minnesota’s largest city and is known for its lakes, creeks, and waterfalls.
30. Cleveland, Ohio
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 10,874
Cleveland, Ohio is one of the most populous cities in the U.S. as it ranks in the top sixty U.S. cities ranked by population. There were more than forty thousand crimes in Cleveland in 2021, with property crime being the most common.
29. Houston, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 1,653
Houston is one of the largest cities in Texas and the fourth most populous city in America. There were close to 249,000 crimes in the city, with roughly 66,000 theft cases and 19,000 cases of aggravated assault.
28. Aurora, Colorado
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 9,811
Aurora is a city in Colorado that was incorporated in 1929. It saw close to 40,000 crimes reported in 2021, with 3,963 cases of violent crime.
27. Saint Paul, Minnesota
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 9,687
Saint Paul is the seat of government and the capital city of Minnesota. It reported approximately 30,000 crimes in 2021.
26. Nashville, Tennessee
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 9,569
Nashville is the capital city of Tennessee and one of the oldest in the U.S. since it came into being in 1779.
25. Atlanta, Georgia
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 9,120
Atlanta is the capital city and economic hub of Georgia with an economy that is larger than several countries.
24. San Antonio, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 9,012
San Antonio is one of the biggest cities in the U.S. as it has more than a million people living in its boundary.
23. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,922
Oklahoma City is Oklahoma’s largest city and the state capital. It reported close to 60,000 crimes in 2021.
22. Greensboro, North Carolina
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,824
Greensboro is a city in North Carolina and a logistics hub for the state due to its central location.
21. Louisville, Kentucky
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,607
Louisville is one of the oldest cities in America, and one of the few that is named after a French king.
20. Dallas, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,508
Dallas ranks as one of the ten most populous cities in the U.S., with a population of 1.3 million people.
19. Indianapolis, Indiana
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,354
Indianapolis is the state capital of Indiana and like Greensboro, its location makes it the logistics hub for its state.
18. Cincinnati, Ohio
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,194
Cincinnati is another old American state that was settled in 1788. It has one of the largest economies in America, with a below average unemployment rate.
17. Corpus Christi, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 8,015
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in Texas and has one of the biggest ports in America.
16. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 7,855
Charlotte is North Carolina’s largest city in terms of population and is known for its vibrant financial sector that comes second only to New York City.
15. Austin, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 7,687
Austin is the capital city of the state of Texas and an economic hub that has several Fortune 500 companies.
14. Columbus, Ohio
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 7,637
Columbus is Ohio’s most populous state and also its capital. It reported close to 70,000 crimes in 2021.
13. Colorado Springs, Colorado
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 7,611
Colorado Springs is known for the strong presence of the U.S. military and the associated industries that accompany it.
12. Fort Worth, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 6,372
Forth Worth housed almost a million people in 2020, was incorporated in 1874, and is named after a U.S. general.
11. Arlington, Texas
Insider Monkey’s Crime Rate Per 100,000 Estimate: 6,245
Arlington is one of the largest cities in Texas and is known for housing one of two of America’s national cemeteries run by the U.S. Army.
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Disclosure: None. 35 Safest Places to Live in the U.S. in 2023 is originally published on Insider Monkey.
