Deerfield Ranks in Top 5 of Safest Mid-Size Illinois Cities: Study

Deerfield was ranked in the top five of the safest mid-size cities in the state with a population between 15,000 and 30,000, according to a statistical analysis of crime data by a personal finance website.

The village, with a population of 18,309, took the No. 4 spot on ValuePenguin's list of the safest places in Illinois in 2016. Overall, Deerfield rated 26th in safety among the 291 communities with populations of at least 5,000 that were studied by the website.

Deerfield's ranking is an improvement on last year when it was rated seventh in its category and 33rd overall.

The Chicago suburb of Hawthorn Woods (population 7,861) was named the safest city in Illinois. Lake in the Hills ranked No. 1 in the website's mid-size category.

The 291st safest city was East St. Louis—not Chicago—in southern Illinois on the border with Missouri. In fact, Chicago ranked 285th overall, ahead of Harvey (286th), Springfield (288th) and Rockford (290th).

RELATED: Go to ValuePenguin for Its Complete List of Safest Cities in Illinois

Not surprisingly, suburban Chicago communities with high median household incomes, low poverty levels and high home-ownership rates ranked significantly high.

To come up with its rankings, ValuePenguin used property crime and violent crime data culled from 2014 FBI statistics, the most recent stats available. This is how the website then broke down that data:

"We standardized the data to reflect violent and property crimes per 100,000, to account for population. Then, we aggregated a “crime score” by weighting violent crime at 80% and property crime at 20%. … Then we adjusted the crime score for population size, giving more slack to larger cities. Finally, we ranked the cities based on their crime scores."

Deerfield's crime score was 366.

How did Deerfield compare to neighboring communities? Here's a look at their overall rankings with populations in parentheses:

• Evanston: 230th (75,817)
• Glencoe: 48th (8,885)
• Glenview: 46th (45,588)
• Highland Park: 84th (29,920)
• Highwood: 14th (5,328)
• Lake Forest: 20th (19,343)
• Morton Grove: 120th (23,575)
• Niles: 187th (30,071)
• Northbrook: 57th (33,698)
• Northfield: 116th (5,496)
• Skokie: 218th (65,263)
• Wilmette: 90th (27,427)
• Winnetka: 23rd (12,477)

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