Safest, Least Safe CA Cities: WalletHub's 2019 List

CALIFORNIA — A new study by the personal finance website WalletHub ranked America's safest – and least safe – cities across the country.

The rankings included the 150 most populated cities in the United States, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state.

Columbia, Maryland, ranked as the safest city in America, the researchers found, followed by Yonkers, New York, and Plano, Texas.

St. Louis, Missouri, ranked as the least safe city in the U.S.

A total of 29 cities in California made the list, but only four cities ranked among the top 50 safest: Irvine, Fremont, Chula Vista and Rancho Cucamonga.

Here are some other highlights from the report.

Irvine, California, took the top spot for the fewest assaults per capita. Dover, Denver, had the lowest natural-disaster risk of any city in the nation during 2019.

WalletHub compared the 182 cities across 41 relevant metrics of safety, including the number of mass shootings, the unemployment rate and the quality of roads.

Each relevant metric was listed with its corresponding weight, and the cities were subsequently graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the safest possible city.

"Besides the types of hazards that can cause bodily injury or other physical harm, taking an unaffordable second mortgage, forgoing health insurance or even visiting unsecured websites are also ways people run into danger," the study's authors wrote. "At the top of the list of worries is the availability of affordable health care."

Here are the top 10 safest cities in the nation:

1. Columbia, Maryland: 85.33
2. Yonkers, New York: 84.80
3. Plano, Texas: 83.54
4. Gilbert, Arizona: 83.44
5. South Burlington, Vermont: 83.33
6. Virginia Beach, Virginia: 83.22
7. Bismarck, North Dakota: 82.92
8. Nashua, New Hampshire: 82.84
9. Chandler, Arizona: 82.54
10. Warwick, Rhode Island: 82.17

See how California cities ranked, from best to worst, below. National rankings are in parenthesis.

1. Irvine (29)
2. Fremont (30)
3. Chula Vista (42)
4. Rancho Cucamonga (49)
5. Glendale (52)
6. Huntington Beach (54)
7. San Diego (58)
8. Santa Rosa (59)
9. Oceanside (71)
10. Ontario (79)
11. San Jose (83)
12. Santa Clarita (87)
13. Moreno Valley (88)
14. Fontana (89)
15. Garden Grove (92)
16. Oxnard (95)
17. Sacramento (98)
18. Anaheim (101)
19. Santa Ana (109)
20. Riverside (116)
21. Modesto (121)
22. Fresno (127)
23. Long Beach (129)
24. Bakersfield (143)
25. San Francisco (145)
26. Stockton (146)
27. Oakland (149)
28. Los Angeles (171)
29. San Bernardino (180)

View the full report and complete rankings.