The 50 'Safest Cities' in California

With its endless beaches, forested mountains, famous theme parks and natural wonders, Californians already know the Golden State is a great place to live.

If community safety is also a factor for you, SafeWise recently released its “50 Safest Cities in California” rankings for 2016.

The No. 1 safest city on its list was Imperial, a fast-growing Imperial County city with a 2010 census population of 14,758, located four miles from El Centro at the southeastern tip of Southern California. With just 0.30 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, the city of Imperial’s motto is “Winning the West — Herding Success.”

With Disneyland right up the freeway, three Orange County cities, Rancho Santa Margarita, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Woods, were ranked as the second-, third- and fourth-safest cities in California, respectively.

Rounding out the top 5 was Moorpark in Ventura County.

Further up the coastline, the Northern California city of Hillsborough was ranked the state’s sixth-safest city, while its San Francisco Bay Area neighbor Moraga came in at No. 8.

View this interactive map to see if SafeWise included yours among its 50 safest cities in the Golden State:

If you’re wondering how the rankings were compiled, SafeWise says it used the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting data from 2014. It also eliminated any cities with a population of fewer than 11,000 residents, as well as those that did not submit completed crime reports to the FBI.

To view the list in its entirety, click here.

Photo: Montaña de Oro State Park/Joyce Cory via Flickr Creative Commons