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Northbrook Ranked No. 1 Safest Small City In Illinois: Study

The Village of Northbrook received high marks in a number of categories in the study conducted by MoneyGeek.

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The cost of crime in Northbrook is $3.8 million ($116 on a per capita basis).
The cost of crime in Northbrook is $3.8 million ($116 on a per capita basis). (Google Maps)

NORTHBROOK, IL — While it might not come as a surprise to residents, a recent study found that Northbrook is a pretty safe place to live. The Village of Northbrook ranked No. 1 in Illinois on a list of the "Safest Small Cities In America."

According to the study conducted by MoneyGeek, 989 small cities and towns in America were analyzed to find the cost of crime. MoneyGeek says its methodology is different from others — in that they utilized research from the National Institutes of Health into the societal costs of crime for the analysis. Using these estimates of cost by type of crime, MoneyGeek estimated for each city the cost of reported crimes.

The cost of crime in Northbrook is $3.8 million ($116 on a per capita basis). For reference, the median cost of crime per capita for small cities and towns is $500 per capita.

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MoneyGeek, founded in 2016, is an online financial planner based that "specializes in personal finance." According to MoneyGeek, more than 50 million Americans live in small cities and towns (30,000 to 100,000 residents).

For the study, the company said it analyzed crime data and calculated the cost of crime in each place. They included data on violent crimes such as murder, rape and aggravated assault, and on property crimes such as burglaries and car theft. MoneyGeek said property crimes are much more common, violent crimes are more costly.

Find out what's happening in Northbrookfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

To rank the safest small cities and towns in the United States, MoneyGeek started with standardized crime statistics reported to the FBI. To determine crime rates per 100,000 people, population data accessed from the FBI was added to the analysis.

Northbrook ranked No. 39 overall for safest small cities in the United States in the study.

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