Many Hudson Valley Counties Named Among The Safest In The Country

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — U.S. News & World Report recently put together a list of the safest counties in the country, and many Hudson Valley communities made the list, and Long Island's Nassau County was named No. 1. The data was compiled as the organization was finding the healthiest communities in the country.

According to U.S. News, as part of its effort to find the healthiest communities, it looked at how safe communities were. It looked at data on crime, injuries and public safety capacity, as well as the violent crime rate, car crash fatalities, the number of public safety professionals in the population and the per capita spending on healthcare and emergency services.

"A safe community is a healthy community in many ways," U.S. News wrote. "Not only are residents protected from harm, but their community has the resources needed to care for them should a crime or injury occur."

The data was compiled and created a score out of 100 points. And Nassau County got a perfect score. Nassau outperformed the rest of the country on all of the key metrics U.S. News was measuring.

Nassau spends $1,148 per capita on police and fire protection — much higher than the national median of $359. The percent of the population that are public safety professionals is almost double the national median. And the violent crime rate is 133.8 per 100,000 people, whereas the national average is 231.7 per 100,000.

Rockland County, which came in at No. 2 overall, had a score of 97 out of 100. It also had higher-than-average spending for police and fire protection, more public safety professionals in the population and a lower violent crime rate.

Many other New York counties were also named among the safest communities in the country: Westchester, Richmond and Putnam counties all made the list.

Here's the full list of the safest counties in America, along with more information about them from U.S. News & World Report.

1. Nassau County, New York
2. Rockland County, New York
3. Alexandria, Virginia
4. Arlington County, Virginia
5. Westchester County, New York
6. Bergen County, New Jersey
7. Los Alamos County, New Mexico
8. San Mateo County, California
9. Richmond County, New York
10. Pitkin County, Colorado
11. Brown County, Minnesota
12. Butler County, Iowa
13. Union County, New Mexico
14. Val Verde County, Texas
15. Dixon County, Nebraska
16. Phillips County, Colorado
17. Putnam County, New York
18. Hudson County, New Jersey
19. Buena Vista, Virginia
20. Lexington, Virginia