New Lenox Ranked Among the Safest Cities in the U.S.

NeighborhoodScout.com recently released its 2017 lists of the 100 Safest Cities in America and 100 Most Dangerous Cities – and New Lenox has been ranked among the safest towns on the list. Meanwhile, one Illinois town has the misfortune of ranking in the No. 1 “most dangerous” spot.

The website – “a web-based patented neighborhood search engine that uses neighborhood statistics to build neighborhood profiles” said it uses violent crime data reported to the FBI and city population to determine its rankings.

New Lenox came in as the 100th safest place to live in the nation on NeighborhoodScout.com's list. It falls at the bottom of the pack of the 19 Illinois cities that made the rankings of the "safest." Lake in the Hills took the highest spot, at no. 7, followed by Bartlett in 9th and Buffalo Grove in 32nd. Two other south suburbs nearby made the list—Lockport at no. 56 and Oak Forest at no. 93.

Five Illinois towns earned spots among the “most dangerous.”

East St. Louis ranked as the place you’re most likely to fall victim to a crime. Surprisingly, the city of Chicago – with a total of 746 murders in 2016 but a much higher population – didn’t even make the list due to the per-capita crime rate. Last year, the FBI also ranked St. Louis the most dangerous city in the U.S., with 88.1 violent crimes per 10,000 people.

NeighborhoodScout ranked cities with populations of 25,000 or more based on the total number of property and violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Crimes include burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, murder, rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault, and are based on the total number of crimes reported to the FBI and the population of each city.

According to Neighborhood Scout, the statewide rate of violent crime per 1,000 residents is 3.91, slightly above the national median of 3.8. The rate of property crime per 1,000 residents is 16.91, well below the national median of 24.9.

The NeighborhoodScout site also allows you to pull up interesting information about your neighborhood and get a breakdown of the safest, and least safe, neighborhoods in your town. Here is a look at New Lenox's stats on NeighborhoodScout.com.

Illinois’ safest cities

Here are the 19 Illinois cities ranked among the 100 safest in the United States (national ranking is in parentheses). Find the complete national list here.

• New Lenox (100)
• Oak Forest (93)
• Carol Stream (89)
• Northbrook (88)
• Elmhurst (82)
• Highland Park (81)
• Mount Prospect (64)
• Mundelein (57)
• Lockport (56)
• Palatine (51)
• Plainfield (47)
• Hoffman Estates (46)
• Huntley (43)
• Hanover Park (37)
• Wheaton (32)
• Buffalo Grove (12)
• Bartlett (9)
• Lake in the Hills (7)

Illinois’ most dangerous cities

These are the five Illinois cities listed among the 100 most dangerous in the country (national ranking is in parenthesis).

• Springfield (59)
• Harvey (44)
• Danville (29)
• Rockford (14)
• East St. Louis (1)

Photo by Shutterstock/Shannon Antinori contributed to this article