USA's safest and most dangerous cities ranked, part of a tricky quest

When Mayor Frank Picozzi learned Warwick, Rhode Island, had topped a list of the safest cities in the United States, he wasn't surprised.

The charming city on the coast took advantage of federal money handed out during the COVID-19 pandemic to bolster its fleet of fire trucks and police vehicles, part of a yearslong effort to help improve public safety, which Picozzi credits with helping the city rise through rankings.

"We had some areas of the city that were kind of rocky neighborhoods, but by constant policing and economic development, that's not the case anymore," Picozzi said. "People take pride in the city."

The analysis published by WalletHub in October doesn't just take into account crime data, which can be flawed and difficult to compare across cities. It also evaluates how safe residents are from natural disasters like tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes. Financial safety is also measured by factors like the unemployment rate and the percentage of people living without health insurance and in poverty.

"Too many people don't take this into account when assessing safety," said WalletHub writer and analyst Chip Lupo.

But trying to determine where Americans are the safest isn't an exact science. Amid efforts to find new ways to measure public safety, some experts warn that evaluating public and personal safety may require more nuance.

How did WalletHub attempt to find the safest cities in America?

Lupo said WalletHub evaluated the 150 most populous cities in the country and at least two of the most populous cities in each state on 41 weighted metrics related to safety. The cities were given a score out of 100. Factors related to home and community safety − including crime, traffic fatalities, the amount of law enforcement employees and the perception of safety − carried the most weight.

Though most cities in the top 10 rank highly across all three categories, some were still at high risk of extreme weather events or financial struggles. Overland Park, Kansas, and Yonkers, New York, for example, were ranked 118th for natural disaster risk and financial safety, respectively.