Small Cities and Towns Are Getting Safer, While Violent Crime in Large Cities Is on the Rise

Updated: September 11, 2026

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Crime takes a toll on communities, not just emotionally but also economically. Beyond direct costs from property loss, victim services, policing and corrections, residents of higher-crime locales often pay higher insurance rates.

How much safer are small towns in reality? MoneyGeek analyzed crime statistics by quantifying the cost of crime and ranking 1,061 small cities and towns nationwide. The dataset covers violent crimes, including murder, rape and aggravated assault, and property crimes like burglary and motor vehicle theft. MoneyGeek conducts this analysis annually, in line with its ranking of the safest cities in America.

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KEY FINDINGS
  • The safest small city in the U.S. is Columbus, Indiana, in Bartholomew County, roughly 40 miles south of Indianapolis.
  • The average cost of crime in small cities was $1,141 per capita in 2023. Violent crime costs over $1,000 per capita, while property crime costs an average of $133. Violent crime makes up 14.3% of all crime in this analysis; property crime accounts for 85.7%.
  • Overall, small cities and towns have 48% lower crime costs than larger cities.
  • Some small towns have crime costs that rival large cities. Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has a higher crime cost per capita than all of the 292 large cities analyzed. New York City, by comparison, has a crime cost similar to Juneau, Alaska, and Grand Island, Nebraska.

6 of the 10 Safest Small Cities Are in the Northeast

More than 50 million Americans live in small cities and towns, but how safe is small-town America? MoneyGeek analyzed crime statistics and quantified the cost of those crimes to identify the safest and least safe small cities and towns (those with 30,000 to 100,000 residents).

Most of America's safest small cities and towns are in the Northeast, with six of the top 10 cities in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. Cities and towns in Indiana, Utah and Ohio round out the rest of the top 10. The least safe towns are distributed primarily across the South. But Pine Bluff, Arkansas, ranks as the least safe small city in the analysis.

15 Safest Small Cities and Towns in America
City
Crime Cost per Capita

1.

Columbus, IN

$22

2.

Wallingford, CT

$40

3.

Lone Peak, UT

$41

4.

Zionsville, IN

$52

5.

Monroe Township, Middlesex County, NJ

$55

6.

Yorktown Town, NY

$57

7.

Carmel Town, NY

$64

8.

Wallkill Town, NY

$68

America's small cities and towns differ widely in safety. From Vestavia Hills, Alabama, with a crime cost per capita of $172, to Laramie, Wyoming, at $398, these communities represent the safest small locales for residents in each state.

The Safest Town in Each State
City
State
Crime Cost per Capita

Vestavia Hills, AL

Alabama

$172

Juneau, AK

Alaska

$1,553

San Luis, AZ

Arizona

$131

Bella Vista, AR

Arkansas

$340

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA

California

$91

Windsor, CO

Colorado

$102

Wallingford, CT

Connecticut

$40

Newark, DE

Delaware

$510

Are Small Cities and Towns Safer Than Big Cities?

Lining up the data for large and small cities, MoneyGeek found that small cities and towns are often safer than large cities. The violent crime rate in large cities was nearly double that of small cities. But the data also show a substantial overlap in crime costs between large and small cities. In that overlap, some small and large cities share the same per capita cost of crime.

The data show that many unsafe small cities and towns have crime levels comparable to those of their big-city counterparts.

For example, the per capita cost of crime in the least safe small and large cities is similar. In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the least safe small city, the per capita cost of crime is $12,929. That’s higher than in large cities like Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama, where the per capita cost of crime is $11,582 and $10,397. Juneau, Alaska (pop. 31,400), has a crime cost per capita of $1,377. Grand Island, Nebraska (pop. 52,264), is at $1,430. Both are close to New York City (pop. 8.2 million), where the per capita crime cost is $1,407.

The safest places to live are often smaller, but population size doesn't always predict crime levels.

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Methodology

To rank the safest small cities and towns in the United States, MoneyGeek started with standardized crime statistics reported to the FBI from 2023, the latest year of available data. To calculate crime rates per 100,000 people, MoneyGeek used population data from the FBI. The analysis focuses on cities with populations between 30,000 and 100,000 and includes 1,061 cities. The 2023 data was unavailable for some small cities in Florida; for those cities, standardized crime statistics were sourced individually.

MoneyGeek relied on research by professors Kathryn McCollister and Michael French of the University of Miami and Hai Fang of the University of Colorado Denver, applying their findings to calculate the societal cost of crime in each city.

Full Dataset

Definitions:

  • Crime Cost per Capita: Societal cost of crime per resident.
  • Violent Crime Rate: Rate per 100,000 residents, based on four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
  • Property Crime Rate: Rate per 100,000 residents, including burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.
  • Cost of Crime: Economic losses from crime in millions, covering costs to individuals, communities and the nation.
Rank
City
Crime Cost per Capita
Violent Crime Rate
Property Crime Rate
Total Crime Cost (in millions)

1

Columbus, IN

$22

19

112

$1,130

2

Wallingford, CT

$40

9

476

$1,748

3

Lone Peak, UT

$41

13

279

$1,254

4

Zionsville, IN

$52

21

279

$1,704

5

Monroe Township, Middlesex County, NJ

$55

27

227

$2,647

6

Yorktown Town, NY

$57

20

675

$1,993

7

Carmel Town, NY

$64

32

307

$2,170

8

Wallkill Town, NY

$68

16

994

$2,154

About Deb Gordon


Deb Gordon, CEO, Umbra Health Advocacy

Deb Gordon, the co-founder and CEO of Umbra Health Advocacy, has held executive roles in health insurance and health care technology services. She authored a book titled “The Health Care Consumer’s Manifesto,” based on her research as a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Her work has been published in JAMA Network Open, the Harvard Business Review blog, USA Today and RealClearPolitics, among others.

Gordon is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow and an Eisenhower Fellow. She was a 2011 Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree and a volunteer at MIT’s Delta V start-up accelerator, the Fierce Healthcare Innovation Awards. She earned her bioethics degree from Brown University and her MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.


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