10 Calif. Cities Are Among 'Safest Cities In America'

ACROSS CALIFORNIA – A new analysis has ranked the 100 safest cities in America and ten cities in California made 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, 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.

Out of the top 100 safest cities, these are the ten from California:

• Rancho Santa Margarita, #18
• Aliso Viejo, #52
• Moorpark, #66
• Danville, #74
• Lake Forest, #81
• Saratoga, #84
• Poway, #90
• Rancho Palos Verdes, #91
• Mission Viejo, #95
• Foster City, #98

Rancho Santa Margarita was the 18th safest city in the country, and the most safe city in California that made the list. This town has a crime index of 84 out of 100, with 100 being the safest.

Rancho Santa Margarita is safer than 84 percent of cities in America, NeighborhoodScout says. There were 48 violent crimes in the city in 2016, the most recent year that complete data was available. That’s good for a rate of 0.98 per 1,000 residents. There were zero murders in Rancho Santa Margarita and two rapes.

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. Photo credit: David McNew/Getty Images