Safest and Most Dangerous Cities: Illinois Town Ranks as No. 1 ‘Most Dangerous’

NeighborhoodScout.com recently released its 2017 lists of 100 Safest Cities in America and 100 Most Dangerous Cities – and an Illinois town has the misfortune of ranking in the No. 1 “most dangerous” spot.

The website – “a web-based patented neighborhood search engine that uses neighborhood statistics to build neighborhood profiles” said it uses violent crime data reported to the FBI and city population to determine its rankings.

While 19 Illinois cities made the “safest places to live” list, five earned spots among the “most dangerous.”

East St. Louis ranked as the place you’re most likely to fall victim to a crime. Surprisingly, the City of Chicago – with a total of 746 murders in 2016 but a much higher population – didn’t even make the list due to the per-capita crime rate. Last year, the FBI also ranked St. Louis the most dangerous city in the U.S., with 88.1 violent crimes per 10,000 people.

NeighborhoodScout ranked cities with populations of 25,000 or more based on the total number of property and violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Crimes include burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, murder, rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault, and are based on the total number of crimes reported to the FBI and the population of each city.

According to Neighborhood Scout, the statewide rate of violent crime per 1,000 residents is 3.91, slightly above the national median of 3.8. The rate of property crime per 1,000 residents is 16.91, well below the national median of 24.9.

Illinois’ safest cities

Here are the 19 Illinois cities ranked among the 100 safest in the United States (national ranking is in parentheses). Find the complete national list here.

• New Lenox (100)
• Oak Forest (93)
• Carol Stream (89)
• Northbrook (88)
• Elmhurst (82)
• Highland Park (81)
• Mount Prospect (64)
• Mundelein (57)
• Lockport (56)
• Palatine (51)
• Arlington Heights (49)
• Plainfield (47)
• Hoffman Estates (46)
• Huntley (43)
• Hanover Park (37)
• Wheaton (32)
• Buffalo Grove (12)
• Bartlett (9)
• Lake in the Hills (7)

Illinois’ most dangerous cities

These are the five Illinois cities listed among the 100 most dangerous in the country (national ranking is in parenthesis). Find the complete national list here.

• Springfield (59)
• Harvey (44)
• Danville (29)
• Rockford (14)
• East St. Louis (1)

Photo by Renee Schiavone