When people are looking to move, they always want to make sure that the place they are moving to is safe. Figuring out if a particular city is safe or not requires a lot of work, more than the average individual can do on their own, and that’s just for one city. If a person wants to compare the safety of multiple cities, they need to look at a professionally done study.
How the List Was Created
There are several different ways that cities can be ranked in safety. Each study conducts itself a little differently than others. However, they all typically have a few similarities. Every study will examine the violent and property crime statistics for each city. What differs is how much they weigh those crimes when calculating the city’s safety.
SafeWise created its list by referencing The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. UCR is a national program into which cities all over the country report their crime statistics. This gives SafeWise numbers to work with from 2017, which are the most recent numbers to date.
In order to prevent smaller, outlying cities who can have drastically different crime statistics from skewing the data, SafeWise only looked at cities whose populations were over the state median. Basically, they only looked at cities that would be classified as medium or larger within the state.
When ranking the cities, SafeWise chose to prioritize violent crime rates over property crime rates. This is due to the fact that violent crimes can cause physical harm to people, and are therefore typically more concerning than property crimes, which only damage property. While both types of crimes are upsetting, violent crimes are obviously worse than property crimes.
The study compared the violent crime rates per 1,000 people. If there was a tie between two cities with violent crimes, then they ranked the cities by their reported property crimes.
The Top Safest Cities
The top 20 safest cities in California according to SafeWise’s research are as follows:
• Irvine, Violent Crimes .61 per 1,000, Property Crimes 13.16 per 1,000.
• Rancho Santa Margarita, Violent Crimes .65 per 1,000, Property Crimes 6.67 per 1,000.
• Yorba Linda, Violent Crimes .65 per 1,000, Property Crimes 10.36 per 1,000.
• Murrieta, Violent Crimes .71 per 1,000, Property Crimes 14 per 1,000.
• San Ramon, Violent Crimes .73 per 1,000, Property Crimes 10.48 per 1,000.
• Rancho Palos Verdes, Violent Crimes .78 per 1,000, Property Crimes 10.48 per 1,000.
• Folsom, Violent Crimes .82 per 1,000, Property Crimes 15.73 per 1,000.
• Laguna Niguel, Violent Crimes .82 per 1,000, Property Crimes 8.72 per 1,000.
• Aliso Viejo, Violent Crimes .85 per 1,000, Property Crimes 7.58 per 1,000.
• Chino Hills, Violent Crimes .88 per 1,000, Property Crimes 17.14 per 1,000.
• Eastvale, Violent Crimes .88 per 1,000, Property Crimes 21.13 per 1,000.
• Lincoln, Violent Crimes .92 per 1,000, Property Crimes 12.67 per 1,000.
• Diamond Bar, Violent Crimes 1 per 1,000, Property Crimes 18.30 per 1,000.
• Temecula, Violent Crimes 1.02 per 1,000, Property Crimes 22.69 per 1,000.
• Rocklin, Violent Crimes 1.04 per 1,000, Property Crimes 17.81 per 1,000.
• Mission Viejo, Violent Crimes 1.04 per 1,000, Property Crimes 10 per 1,000.
• Poway, Violent Crimes 1.15 per 1,000, Property Crimes 11.42 per 1,000.
• Pleasanton, Violent Crimes 1.17 per 1,000, Property Crimes 19.67 per 1,000.
• Sunnyvale, Violent Crimes 1.17 per 1,000, Property Crimes 17.31 per 1,000.
Find a Safe Place to Call Home
While this list isn’t the only one of its kind, it is one that allows a person to make a more informed decision while looking for a new home. That is all anyone wants. If a person wants to make a truly informed decisions, a person should look at multiple lists to get as much information as they can.
By doing this, a person should be able to make a good choice and find a place to live where they can feel safe.