South Kingstown Ranks As Safest Small City, Town In Rhode Island: MoneyGeek

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — South Kingstown was ranked the safest small city or town in Rhode Island by MoneyGeek, a financial planning website.

In a report titled Safest Small Cities and Towns, MoneyGeek analyzed crime statistics for 660 municipalities with a population between 30,000 and 100,000.

According to MoneyGeek, researchers quantified the cost of crime per capita and ranked the cities based on those statistics. Data on violent crimes, such as murder, rape and aggravated assault were included, as well as property crimes such as burglaries and car theft.

MoneyGeek used standardized crime statistics reported to the FBI from 2021, which was the latest year of available data.

South Kingstown was ranked No. 1 in the Ocean State with a $111 crime cost per capita.

MoneyGeek also ranked the top 15 safest small cities and towns in the U.S. Yorktown, New York ($43) and Mason, Ohio ($47) occupied the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the list. They were followed by Andover ($51) to round out the top three.

South Kingstown was No. 23 on the list.

The least safe small city or town was Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

MoneyGeek also offered a few additional findings about crime in small cities and towns and how those statistics compared to larger cities:

• The cost of crime in small cities decreased by 5 percent from 2020 to 2021, while the cost in larger cities (100,000 or more residents) increased by 6 percent.
• Small cities and towns have 42 percent lower crime costs than larger cities.