20 Safest Cities In CA In 2024: Report

CALIFORNIA — There are many safe places to call home in California, according to crime statistics analyzed by SafeWise.

SafeWise, a security product review platform, looked at FBI crime statistics for cities in California to compile its 10th annual Safest Cities report. A total of 77 cities met the criteria to be considered for ranking. Notably, some of the Golden State's priciest neighborhoods didn't make the list this year.

Statewide violent crime has actually dipped, but that didn't stop the widespread perception that crime is a major threat in the Golden State, according to the the study.

According to SafeWise, 64 percent of Californians said they are highly concerned about violent crime happening to them—that’s the third highest concern in the the nation. However, violent crime in California fell last year, according to the report. California's violent crime rate is 4.2 incidents per 1,000 people. That's higher than the national rate of 4.0, but lower than the previous year's rate of 4.4, SafeWise concluded.

In California, Rancho Santa Margarita, followed by Aliso Viejo and Yorba Linda, ranked as the top three safest cities in the state. All three cities are in Orange County. Orange County cities dominated the list with cities in the region claiming seven of the top 10 spots.

Rancho Santa Margarita ranked as the safest city in the Golden State, with a violent crime rate of 0.4 and a property crime rate of 4.8 incidents per 1,000 people, according to the report. The city has a population of 46,889.

Rancho Santa Margarita and Yorba Linda were the only two cities that reported no murders and rapes, the report found. All the safest cities reported fewer than three violent crimes per 1,000 people.

The rankings were based on FBI crime data. Cities and jurisdictions across the country voluntarily report the information through the FBI Summary Reporting System and National Incident-Based Reporting System. The most recent FBI data was released in October 2023 and accounts for crimes reported in 2022. SafeWise also used population thresholds in its reporting, according to the company.

These are the top 20 safest cities in California for 2024, according to SafeWise:

1. Rancho Santa Margarita
2. Aliso Viejo
3. Yorba Linda
4. Laguna Niguel
5. Mission Viejo
6. Lake Forest
7. Lincoln
8. Poway
9. Rocklin
10. Irvine
11. Santee
12. San Marcos
13. San Clemente
14. Elk Grove
15. Encinitas
16. Murrieta
17. Fontana
18. Menifee
19. Cypress
20. Clovis

See the full list.

California's violent crime rate was 4.2 incidents per 1,000 people. That's higher than the national rate of 4.0, but lower than the the previous year's rate of 4.4, according to the report.

Statewide, the property crime rate of 25.3 incidents per 1,000 people was 23 percent higher than the nationwide rate of 20.7.

Per capita crime rates in the safest cities were significantly lower, the report found, coming in at 1.7 for violent crime and 12.8 for property crime.

About 64 percent of Californians said they were highly concerned about violent crime happening to them, according to the report.

Gun violence was the crime and safety concern with the lowest level of daily worry in the Golden State, according to SafeWise. There were 51 mass shooting incidents in California in 2023. That's one more than in 2022.