[OC] Top 10 Safest & Most Dangerous Cities in the United States (2023)

The top 10 safest and most dangerous cities in the United States, based on 2023 data.

The original data set used was based on cities with a population of 65,000 and above. There are 640 cities and suburbs that meet this criteria according to the US Census Bureau, however only 518 of these cities and suburbs had crime data available. The "US Average" violent crime rate of 470 is the average of these 518 cites and suburbs.

Some interesting facts:

• Memphis, Tennessee (the most dangerous city) has a violent crime rate 30 times higher than Irvine, California (the safest city)
• 4 states had multiple cities on these lists: California, Wisconsin, Texas, and Utah
• Texas and Utah are the only states with two cities on the top 10 safest list
  • Texas (McAllen is #6 safest and College Station is #8 safest)
  • Utah (Orem is #7 safest and Provo is #10 safest)
• California and Wisconsin are the only states with cities on both lists
  • California (Irvine is #1 safest, Thousand Oaks is #3 safest, and Oakland is #6 most dangerous)
  • Wisconsin (Eau Claire is #5 safest and Milwaukee is #8 most dangerous)

What was considered a "city" for this list? I broke this down into three categories: core cities, principal cities, and suburbs. The core city is usually the largest and most important city in the metro area, a principal city can be other cities in the metro area that are prominent in their own right, and suburbs are other remaining cities. For example, in the Dallas metropolitan area, I broke it down: Dallas (Core City), Fort Worth (Principal City), and Arlington and the rest (Suburb). For these lists, I only counted core and principal cities, not suburbs.

These "city types" are all subjective, so some cities (like Irvine, Thousand Oaks, and Orem) may be categorized different than you would categorize them. Here are the 5 next safest core and principal cities, to round out the top 15:

• Ames, Iowa (156.83)
• Rochester, Minnesota (162.44)
• St. George, Utah (163.87)
• Lawrence, Kansas (164.95)
• Auburn, Alabama (172.48)

Here are the 5 next most dangerous core and principal cities, to round out the top 15:

• Birmingham, Alabama (1,429.06)
• St. Louis, Missouri (1,409.04)
• Flint, Michigan (1,376.07)
• Lansing, Michigan (1,374.79)
• Beaumont, Texas (1,373.90)

These are the top 5 cities with the lowest violent crime rate if you include suburbs (over 65,000 population).

• Castle Rock, Colorado (23.69)
• Sammamish, Washington (24.30)
• Yorba Linda, California (43.23)
• Apex, North Carolina (46.44)
• Johns Creek, Georgia (48.51)

Data Sources: This data was sourced from two main locations. First, was the city's police department, if they had data available. If they didn't, I went to the FBI NIBRS report. The data for Anchorage, Detroit, Little Rock, Portland, Oakland, Milwaukee, Irvine, Thousand Oaks, Virginia Beach, and McAllen were from their city's police department. While the data for Memphis, Cleveland, Baltimore, Kansas City, Nashua, Eau Claire, Orem, College Station, Bellevue, and Provo were from the FBI NIBRS report.

Tools Used: Community Scout for research, Excel to clean data, Figma to build infographic, US Map SVG from Wikipedia