14 Of America's 100 Safest Places To Live Are In Connecticut

It's a fact that Connecticut's overall crime rate keeps dropping and the prison population is at an all-time low. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that a new nationwide report reveals that 14 of the top 100 safest places in America are in Connecticut. In fact, Connecticut had six of the top 20 safest communities in the U.S.

SafeWise recently released its fifth annual report of the 100 Safest Cities in America. Connecticut had 14 cities rank among the safest cities in the nation in 2019.

Ridgefield is ranked No. 2 in the report, right behind Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Ridgefield had zero reported violent crimes last year. Madison came in at No. 3, New Canaan, No. 14, Cheshire, No. 16, Avon, No. 18, Darien, No. 25, Simsbury, No. 30, Brookfield, No. 35, Westport, No. 36, Suffield, No. 44, Wilton, No. 48, Guilford, No. 53, Rocky Hill, No. 64, and Wolcott, No. 91.

A total of 30 New Jersey communities made the top 100 list, followed by Connecticut, 14, Pennsylvania, 10, and New York and Illinois with eight each.

About the 100 Safest Cities report:

"Methodology: To identify the 100 Safest Cities in America, we reviewed the most recent FBI crime report statistics and census population data. Cities that fell below identified population thresholds or that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI were excluded from the ranking system."

"Our evaluation is based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) in each city. If there was a tie, we also factored in the number of property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft). To level the playing field, we calculated the rate of crimes per 1,000 people in each city. This makes it easier to directly compare the likelihood of these crimes occurring in cities with vastly different populations," SafeWise explains in its report.

Noteworthy findings from SafeWise:

"The top three cities (Hopkinton, Massachusetts; Ridgefield, Connecticut; Madison, Connecticut) each reported zero violent crimes in 2017—and each has a median income of more than $100,000."

"The 100 cities that made our list represent 18 states and every region, although the Northeast dominates with 70% of the country’s safest cities."

"It’s harder to find one of the safest cities in the West or the South—those regions have only five cities each on our list."

>>>Read the full SafeWise report here.