7 VA Cities Ranked Safest Places To Live In U.S.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Two Northern Virginia cities earned a place among the most safe among the largest 200 major cities in the United States in 2022, according to research by SmartAsset.

Nearly half of all buyers (49 percent) cited the quality of a neighborhood as the No. 1 factor for determining where to live, ahead of both affordability (37 percent) and proximity to friends and family (37 percent).

Safety is the primary concern for residents, so the team at SmartAsset set out to learn which cities in the U.S. are safest. The website analyzed data from 200 of the largest cities in the country across the following five metrics: violent crime, property crime, vehicular mortality rate, drug poisoning mortality rate and the percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking.

All crime metrics are per 100,000 residents.

These are the top five safest cities in the country, according to SmartAsset:

1. Frisco, Texas
2. McKinney, Texas
3. McAllen, Texas
4. Santa Clarita, California
5. Plano, Texas

Alexandria and Arlington were the two Virginia cities named to the top 20 safest large cities.

Alexandria: Ranks No. 6 with 207 violent crimes; 1,671 property crimes; 3.9 vehicular deaths and 10.9 drug poisoning deaths.

Arlington: Ranks No. 11 with 204 violent crimes; 1,483 property crimes; 3.1 vehicular deaths and 9.0 drug poisoning deaths.

Chesapeake: Ranks No. 25 with 463 violent crimes; 1,699 property crimes; 7.2 vehicular deaths and 19.3 drug poisoning deaths.

Virginia Beach: Ranks No. 28 with 112 violent crimes; 1,570 property crimes; 6.5 vehicular deaths and 16.9 drug poisoning deaths.

Newport News: Ranks No. 72 with 652 violent crimes; 1,980 property crimes; 9.2 vehicular deaths and 26.6 drug poisoning deaths.

Richmond: Ranks No. 112 with 374 violent crimes; 2,736 property crimes; 8.3 vehicular deaths and 47.0 drug poisoning deaths.

Norfolk: Ranks No. 133 with 739 violent crimes; 3,199 property crimes; 8.3 vehicular deaths and 24.3 drug poisoning deaths.

Washington, D.C., ranks at No. 186 with 984 violent crimes; 4,135 property crimes; 5.6 vehicular deaths and 46.6 drug poisoning deaths per 100,000.

Data and Methodology

To find the safest cities, SmartAsset compared 200 of the largest U.S. cities across the following metrics:

• Violent crime rate. The number of violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Data comes from the FBI’s 2021 Uniform Crime Reporting Database; missing crime data was supplemented by NeighborhoodScout.com
• Property crime rate. The number of property crimes per 100,000 residents. Data comes from the FBI’s 2021 Uniform Crime Reporting Database; missing crime data was supplemented by NeighborhoodScout.com
• Vehicular mortality rate. The number of deaths due to traffic accidents per 100,000 residents. Data is from the 2022 County Health Rankings.
• Drug poisoning mortality rate. The number of drug poisoning deaths per 100,000 residents. Data is from the 2022 County Health Rankings.
• Percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking. The percentage of adults who consumed more than four drinks of alcohol for women or five drinks of alcohol for men on a single occasion over a 30-day period, or who engage in heavy drinking, which is defined as drinking more than one drink per day for women or two drinks a day for men on average. Data is from the 2022 County Health Rankings.