Safest Washington Cities 2019: See Where Renton Ranks

RENTON, WA - The National Council For Home Safety and Security has released a ranking of the safest cities in Washington using recent FBI crime data. Snoqualmie came in as the No. 1 safest city while University Place came in last on the list.

The list is a little different from other safest-cities lists. Usually, wealthy Eastside cities like Sammamish and Medina are ranked safest, but this list favors small, rural cities. Issaquah and Bellevue are ranked in the middle of the list, while Enumclaw came in No. 5.

Renton was rated among the 10 least safe cities in the state, even less safe than Seattle, Yakima, and Everett.

The list was created by looking at violent and property crimes, and weighing that data based on population.

"We computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. We then rated them using the population of the city and created a crime rate as the number of crimes per 1,000 population. Then we transformed the total crime rate variable so that the skewness was reduced, and we normalized it so the final number became a score between 0 and 1," the National Council For Home Safety and Security described.

Renton's violent crime rate was about 3.2 crimes per 1,000 people - but that's below the U.S. average of 3.47 per 1,000. The property crime rate, however, was well above both Washington and national averages at 50 per 1,000 people.

(The list only includes cities of a certain size that send crime data to the FBI. Cities like Shoreline or Woodinville don't appear likely because they are policed by the King County Sheriff's Office.)

Here's the full ranking:

1. Snoqualmie
2. Oak Harbor
3. Sunnyside
4. West Richland
5. Enumclaw
6. Grandview
7. Washougal
8. Lynden
9. Bainbridge Island
10. Battle Ground
11. Cheney
12. Monroe
13. Lake Forest Park
14. Pullman
15. Lake Stevens
16. Camas
17. Mercer Island
18. Mukilteo
19. Ferndale
20. Anacortes
21. Mill Creek
22. Bothell
23. Edmonds
24. Ellensburg
25. Kirkland
26. Port Angeles
27. Poulsbo
28. Mountlake Terrace
29. Walla Walla
30. Bonney Lake
31. East Wenatchee
32. Aberdeen
33. Pasco
34. Redmond
35. Snohomish
36. Richland
37. Wenatchee
38. Issaquah
39. Bellevue
40. Sedro Woolley
41. Marysville
42. Kelso
43. Kennewick
44. Tumwater
45. Longview
46. Seattle
47. Vancouver
48. Fife
49. Everett
50. Mount Vernon
51. Olympia
52. Lacey
53. Bellingham
54. Lynnwood
55. Sumner
56. Yakima
57. Bremerton
58. Arlington
59. Des Moines
60. Lakewood
61. Edgewood
62. Moses Lake
63. Centralia
64. Port Orchard
65. Puyallup
66. Spokane Valley
67. Renton
68. Kent
69. Federal Way
70. Tacoma
71. Spokane
72. University Place

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