Lake Forest Is The 81st Safest City In America: Analysis

LAKE FOREST, CA — A new analysis has ranked the 100 safest cities in America and in Orange County, Rancho Santa Margarita ranked in the top 20. Lake Forest made the top 100 ranking 81st on the list.

NeighborhoodScout, a web-based platform from Location, Inc., compared the safety of cities with at least 25,000 people based on the total number of property and violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Their analysis, released on Monday, Feb. 12 found that 37 percent of the nation’s safest cities reside in just two states: Massachusetts and Illinois, which had 19 and 18 cities on the list, respectively.

Lake Forest was the 81st safest city in the country, with a crime index of 66 out of 100, with 100 being the safest. Our town is safer than 66-percent of cities in America, NeighborhoodScout says.

There were 105 violent crimes in the city in 2016, the most recent year that complete data was available. That’s good for a rate of 1.26 per 1,000 residents. That year, there were no murders in Lake Forest in 2016, and there were 17 reported rapes.

There were also 750 property crimes in Lake Forest, a rate of 9.o1 per 1,000 residents.

NeighborhoodScout says the odds of becoming a victim of a violent crime in Lake Forest are 1 in 793 compared to 1 in 225 in California.

The safest city in America, NeighborhoodScout says, is Ridgefield, Connecticut, with a crime index of 95. The city, which has just over 25,000 people, saw no murders, rapes or robberies in 2016.

Andrew Schiller, CEO and founder of Location, Inc. and NeighborhoodScout, said bedroom communities within large metro areas and near major urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, and New York continue to make their list.

"These safe communities within the urban/suburban fabric of America's largest metropolitan areas often combine access to high-paying jobs in the urban center, decent schools, and a high quality of life,” Schiller said in a release. “This access to opportunity increases home values, with the result often being lower crime."

The safest cities rankings list differs from NeighborhoodScout's list of the most dangerous cities because it comprises both violent and property crimes. The group says the general public tends to equate a “dangerous" city with "violent" crime and a "safe" city with safety from both property crime and violence.

NeighborhoodScout says its analysis includes all reported crimes from all 18,000 local law enforcement agencies across the country from the most recent final data available. For this 2018 report, the figures are based on 2016 statistics.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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