Columbia Is Safest City In America For 2018: WalletHub

COLUMBIA, MD — Columbia is the safest city in America. That is according to WalletHub, a personal finance site that just released its "2018 Safest Cities in America" survey.

WalletHub studied 182 cities, including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, across 39 key indicators of safety. Analysts examined home and community safety, natural disaster risk and financial safety.

Columbia ranked No. 4 when it came to "home and community safety," a category that weighted murder and terrorist attacks heavily, while also considering the number of mass shootings, rapes, thefts, traffic fatalities and other factors. It had a "natural disaster risk" rank of 63, which took into account floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires and other risks. As for "financial safety," Columbia ranked 34th, after an evaluation that looked at the unemployment rate, poverty rate and other factors.

Safest cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub:

1. Columbia, Maryland
2. South Burlington, Vermont
3. Plano, Texas
4. Virginia Beach, Virginia
5. Warwick, Rhode Island
6. Gilbert, Arizona
7. Yonkers, New York
8. Bismarck, North Dakota
9. Nashua, New Hampshire
10. Boise, Idaho

The survey was based on crime, road quality and unemployment, among other factors.

The least safe cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub:

1. St. Louis, Missouri
2. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
3. San Bernardino, California
4. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
5. Little Rock, Arkansas
6. Detroit, Michigan
7. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
8. Wichita, Kansas
9. Los Angeles, California
10. Jackson, Mississippi

Of note, nearby Washington, D.C., has the highest number of law enforcement officers per capita, according to WalletHub, which ranked it 155 overall on the list of 182 cities.

Right behind, Baltimore City ranked 156 out of 182 cities on the list as far as overall safety, with a ranking of 155 for home and community safety, 67 for natural disaster risk and 149 for financial safety.

See the full rankings from WalletHub.

Photo by Elizabeth Janney.