State Watch

Where nation’s safest cities are, according to a new study

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by Addy Bink - 05/19/26 2:52 PM ET

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by Addy Bink - 05/19/26 2:52 PM ET

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(NEXSTAR) — When deciding where you and your family will live, you may take into consideration several factors. How are the schools? What would your commute to work be like? Is the market “overpriced?” Is there a Target nearby?

Maybe chief among all of those aspects is the safety of the area.

A new report from personal finance site SmartAsset reviewed more than 300 cities (all with populations between 65,000 and 250,000) to find which is the safest. To rank them, SmartAsset considered each city’s natural disaster risk, traffic fatality data, and property and violent crime rates from multiple federal agencies.

The safest city reviewed by SmartAsset was Broomfield, Colorado. Located just north of Denver, Broomfield was found to have below-average crime rates, “a modest” rate of motor vehicle fatalities, and a “very low” natural disaster risk. No city fared better in that category.

Half of the 10 highest-ranking cities on SmartAsset’s list are in either Iowa, Indiana, or Wisconsin.

- Broomfield, Colorado

- State College, Pennsylvania

- Warwick, Rhode Island

- Ames, Iowa

- Logan, Utah

- Carmel, Indiana

- Greenwood, Indiana

- Waukesha, Wisconsin

- Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

- Appleton, Wisconsin

Warwick was recently ranked the safest U.S. city in another study.

At the bottom of SmartAsset’s list was Little Rock, Arkansas. The city was found to have elevated tallies across all three of the categories considered.

Rounding out the bottom end of the list were: Pueblo, Colorado; North Little Rock, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Tacoma, Washington; Santa Monica and San Bernardino, California; Shreveport and Lafayette, Louisiana; and Beaumont, Texas.

The interactive table below shows SmartAsset’s findings:

You can view the full study here.

After Little Rock, Pueblo had the highest rate of violent crimes per 1,000 residents, while Tacoma had the highest rate of property crimes, per SmartAsset’s analysis. Rocky Mount, North Carolina, had the most auto fatalities per 100,000 residents.

On the opposite end, Kettering, Ohio, had the lowest rate of violent crimes. Lehi, Utah, had the lowest property crime rate. Four Massachusetts cities — Newton, Waltham, Framingham, and Cambridge — tied for the fewest auto fatalities.

California had the most cities on the list at 63, followed by Texas at 35. No other state had more than 20 cities on the list, though Washington came close with 18. The highest ranked for them were Roseville (No. 40), Georgetown (No. 27), and Richland (No. 78), respectively.

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