analyzed the FBI crime statistics for 2021 to determine which cities in the United States are the safest to live in. The analysis looked at a total of 263 cities with populations greater than 100,000 in order to derive the cost of crime for each city. This cost was then used as a reference to understand how much crime occurs in a given place.
St. Louis, Missouri, was determined to be the most dangerous city in the United States for the second year in a row. The city had the highest cost of crime per capita on the list at $8,457 dollars, based on the 2021 FBI data.
However, the analysis also found that California has two of the safest cities in the entire United States. Naperville, Illinois, and Sunnyvale, California, lead the list of the 10 safest cities with a per capita cost of crime of just $156 each. West Covina, also in California, followed closely behind with a cost of only $181 dollars per capita.
The average cost of crime per capita in US cities was found to be $1,836, which represents a 6 percent increase compared to 2020. This figure is used to determine which cities are the most dangerous by aggregating each crime into an easy-to-read population-based statistic.
It is important to note that the cost of different crimes varies and is calculated based on the severity of the crime. As Doug Milnes, head of data analysis at MoneyGeek, explains, “Murder is 2,571 times worse than theft.”
Overall, this analysis provides valuable information about which cities in the United States are the safest to live in. While St. Louis may be the most dangerous city, California has proven to provide residents with some of the safest places to call home.
