Study: Greater Milwaukee Area Cities Rank Among Safest Towns

Press release from MoneyGeek:

Jan. 16, 2021

MoneyGeek, a personal finance technology company, released its ranking of the safest — and most dangerous — small cities and towns in the U.S. In 2020, many Americans fled large cities in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, searching for a sense of security in small-town America. While many smaller cities and towns do have fewer crime incidents than big cities, small cities and towns are not universally safer than their larger counterparts.

Summary Findings:

• The safest American town is Franklin, Massachusetts. A majority of the safest small cities and towns are located in the Northeast. Small cities and towns get less safe the further west they are.
• Small cities and towns really are safer than big cities — twice as safe. Our analysis found that the median cost of crime in cities and towns with populations between 30,000 and 100,000 was $500, compared to cities with populations over 100,000, where the median cost of crime was $1,029.
• Despite the general safety patterns, a small city or town can be just as dangerous as a large city. The cost of crime per capita in Gary, Indiana, is $8,786, nearly as high as St. Louis, Missouri — the most dangerous city in America — where the per capita cost of crime is $9,334. Westerville, Ohio (pop. 40,903) has a cost of crime per capita of $1,123, comparable to New York, NY ($1,120).
• Rare, catastrophic events can make a bigger dent in the safety of small cities and towns. Despite the tragic mass school shooting that killed 17 people and gripped the nation in 2018, Parkland, Florida, appears on MoneyGeek’s top-ten list of safest small cities and towns this year. One catastrophic event can shake a local community’s sense of security, but it does not necessarily reflect underlying or persistent crime trends.

Safest Small Cities and Towns in America

1. Franklin, MA
2. Shrewsbury, MA
3. Carmel, NY
4. Northampton Township, PA
5. Yorktown, NY
6. Marlboro Township, NJ
7. Bridgewater Township, NJ
8. Fair Lawn, NJ
9. Parkland, FL
10. Monroe Township, NJ

The Most Dangerous Small Cities and Towns in America

1. Gary, IN
2. Pine Bluff, AR
3. Petersburg, VA
4. Chester, PA
5. Camden, NJ
6. Wilmington, DE
7. Danville, IL
8. Meridian, MS
9. Monroe, LA
10. Flint, MI

The full interactive analysis, including a searchable listing of 989 small cities and towns in America, expert commentary and detailed methodology, can be found at https://www.moneygeek.com/living/safest-cities/small-cities-and-towns-in-america/.

MoneyGeek previously analyzed the safest and most dangerous large cities across the U.S., which can be found at https://www.moneygeek.com/living/safest-cities/.

This press release was produced by MoneyGeek. The views expressed here are the author's own.