While Chicago’s violent crime problem often gets national attention, the city’s suburbs are among the safest and best places to raise a family in the country. In fact, 14 smaller Illinois cities–the majority of which are found in greater Chicagoland– earned a score of 0.6 or higher on our Safety Index, which is very good. Here’s a look at the Land of Lincoln’s top five safest cities.

Two Chicago suburbs share the distinction of being named Illinois’ safest city, each earning an excellent 0.91 Safety Index score: Warrenville, a modestly sized community in DuPage County, and Deerfield, a wealthy north shore suburb. Both are terrific places to raise a family and kickstart a career, with award-winning public school systems and thriving local economies. Deerfield edges out Warrenville in violent crime, logging just 0.26 incidents per 1,000 residents, while the latter boasts a slightly lower property crime rate. 

The third spot is shared by three other Chicagoland suburbs, each earning a Safety Index score of 0.75: Elk Grove Village, Burr Ridge, and Wood Dale. Let’s have a glance at all three.

Elk Grove Village is a near northwest Chicago suburb that recorded a violent crime rate over ten times lower than the large city that it borders. Elk Grove is home to the largest business park in the country, which is the center of employment for many residents and inhabitants of neighboring communities, alike.

As one of the richest communities in Illinois, Burr Ridge is a bit more exclusive than middle-class Elk Grove Village. The city of nearly 11,000 recorded just 9 violent crimes in 2017, rendering it a very safe place to raise a family if you can afford the real estate.

Wood Dale, the third of our three third-place entries, is a DuPage County suburb with low violent and property crime rates and a high law enforcement to resident ratio of 2.97.

While not one of the safest states in the nation in terms of violent and property crime rates, Indiana does have its share of safe, family-friendly communities. Over twenty cities in the Hoosier State earned favorable scores in our Safety Index, indicating violent crime rates below the nationwide average, although property crime tends to be higher than average in many Indiana cities. Yet, a select few cities in the state truly distinguished themselves for their top-notch safety records.

Bluffton is our pick for the safest city in Indiana. The modestly-sized Wells County community of around 10,000 logged a mere 7 violent crimes in 2017.

Not far behind are Shelbyville and Dyer, which both earned a 0.7 Safety Index score, tying for second place in our ranking of Indiana’s safest cities. Both are small cities with a friendly, midwestern congenial character and populations under 16K boasting low violent and property crime rates. In fact, Dyer recorded just 4 violent crimes in 2017, for a rate of 0.25 per 1,000 residents.

Fourth in the ranking is Brownsburg, a rapidly expanding suburb of large city Indianapolis that has earned national recognition as a great place for family life on account of its great public school district, healthy economy, and very low crime. In fact, Brownsburg’s property crime rate of 11.44 per 1K is nearly three times below the Indiana state average.

Four other Indiana cities (Beech Grove, Bedford, Carmel, and Crown Point) earned a 0.5 score or higher on our Safety Index, due to their low crime rates and effective policing.

As you’d expect from a quiet midwestern farm state, Iowa boasts violent and property crime rates below the national average. If you and your family are up for a move to The Hawkeye State, you can be confident that crime will be less of a factor in your life than in most other areas of the United States. Yet, all of Iowa’s cities aren’t equal in terms of safety, with several truly distinguishing themselves.

Our choice for Iowa’s safest city is Spencer, a cozy community located at the confluence of two rivers renowned for its widely-attended annual Clay County Fair. The quintessential Iowa berg logged a mere 15 violent crimes in 2017, good enough for a violent crime rate less than half of the statewide average.

Just behind Spencer, is Norwalk, a little city in the Des Moines area that earned a 0.43 score on our Safety Index. With a violent crime rate below 1 per 1K and property crime rate under 10 per 1K, Norwalk residents can rest assured of their safety.

At third place, Pella has some historical distinction as the childhood home of famous Old West lawman Wyatt Earp and his brothers. Perhaps its status as the hometown of the fabled lawman has had a positive effect on the city, which recorded just 19 violent crimes in 2017.

Fourth in the ranking goes to Clive, a Des Moines area suburb notable for the busy Greenbelt Trail that runs through the city. Clive scored an impressive 0.32 on our Safety Index due to its very low violent and property crime rates. 

Johnston, #5, is the last Iowa community to score above a 0.2 on our Safety Index, which it achieved via a low violent crime rate and doubly impressive 11.09 per 1,000 property crime rate, despite a low law enforcement employee to residents ratio of 1.33 per 1,000.

Though Kansas has a violent crime rate slightly above the national average, many of its cities are very safe places to live. In fact, 14 Kansas cities achieved a positive score on our Safety Index, indicating favorably low rates of violent and property crime. Here’s a closer look at the Sunflower State’s five safest cities, all of which recorded violent crime rates below the national average, while 4 out of 5 have property crime rates below the national average.

Leawood, a city of just over 35K in the Kansas City metropolitan area, has the lowest violent crime rate of all qualifying cities, making it Kansas’ safest city.  Leawood logged just 0.88 violent crimes per 1,000, putting it in great company with similar sized communities around the country.

Andover, a modestly sized suburb of Wichita, is Kansas’ #2 safest city, logging a violent crime rate less than half that of the state average. The city’s property crime rate of 22.37 per 1K, which is below the national average, is quite an achievement in a state with a high instance of property crime.

Third place goes to Derby, another suburb of Wichita, bests Andover in both violent and property crime rate, logging a slightly lower Safety Index score due to a lower ratio of law enforcement employees to residents (2.57 vs. 2.35). However, both cities are very safe, family-friendly communities.

The fourth spot in the ranking belongs to Lenexa, a large suburb in the Kansas City area that logged a 1.68 per 1,000 violent crime rate and 17.46 per 1,000 property crime rate. These statistics are very impressive for a city of over 50,000 in population.

Fifth place, McPherson is located in central Kansas, away from major metropolitan areas. The small city recorded a higher than national average property crime rate, but it’s violent crime rate of 2.05 per 1,000 is lower than both state and national averages.

Kentucky is a very safe state, overall. The Bluegrass State logged a violent crime rate of 2.26 per 1,000 and a property crime rate of 21.29, both of which are below the national averages. Therefore, it should be no surprise that many of Kentucky’s individual cities fare well on our Safety Index, which assesses the overall safety of a city based on crime rates and proportional size of a community’s police force. In total, 13 Kentucky cities scored above a 0.2, meaning they are very safe indeed. Let’s look at the five Kentucky cities that scored a 0.4 or above.

Kentucky’s safest city is Somerset, a small city in Pulaski County that achieved a terrific 1.08 safety score. The city recorded just 23 violent crimes in 2017.

Madisonville earned a very high 0.73 Safety Index score, rendering it Kentucky’s #2 safest city. The Western Coal Fields region community managed a 1.55 per 1,000 violent crime rate and a 15.18 per 1,000 property crime rate, besting Kentucky’s already low state averages in both categories.

In the third position is Lawrenceburg, a city of 11,211 that logged just 9 violent crimes in 2017, good for a rate of 0.8 per 1,000. The city’s property crime rate is also significantly below the state average.

At number four, Fort Thomas achieved a violent crime rate of just 0.49 per 1,000, which is the lowest in the state for qualifying cities (those with a population above 10,000). The city rests on the bank of the Ohio River in the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky metropolitan area.

Nearby Erlanger (#5 in the ranking of Kentucky’s safest cities) achieved nearly as impressive crime rates, including a violent crime less than half of the Kentucky state average.

On a whole, Alabama is not one of the safest states in the United States, yet many of its individual communities score very highly on our Safety Index due to low crime rates and well-staffed police forces. The state’s top five safest cities prove to excellent places to live peacefully and raise a family without fear of violent incident or home invasion, let’s take a look at them here.

Cullman, a city of nearly 16,000 and county seat of Cullman County, is Alabama’s safest city. The city scores a 0.72 on the Safety Index due to its low crime rates and excellent police force. 

Following at #2 is Vestavia Hills, a lush, fast growing suburb of large city Birmingham. The city of 34,781 logged a mere 24 violent crimes in 2017.

Third on the list is Hoover, located in the same north-central region of Alabama as the first two entries in the ranking. With a population topping 85,000, Hoover is unusually large city to log such impressive crime statistics, yet the regional shopping and economic hub posted a very low violent crime rate of less than one incident per 1K in 2017.

Ranking #4 is Foley, a small city of just over 18,000 in Baldwin County. Foley owes its safety in part to a high ratio of over 5 law enforcement officers for each 1,000 residents.

Rounding out Alabama’s top five safest cities is Albertsville, a small city of 21,588 with a violent crime rate of just 1.02 per 1,000 residents.

Louisiana is not among the safest states in the nation: the state’s violent crime rate of 5.57 per 1,000 and property crime rate of 33.67 per 1,000 are quite a bit above the national averages in both categories. However, much of Louisiana’s crime problem is localized in big cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge, while many of the state’s smaller communities are relatively safe.

In fact, 11 Louisiana cities scored a 0.2 or above on our Safety Index, indicating that their crime rates are favorably low compared to state and national averages. Let’s take a closer look at Louisiana’s safest cities doing their best to challenge popular perception.

Gretna, a city in Jefferson Parish across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, is our pick for Louisiana’s safest city. While Gretna’s violent and property crime rates are below the state average, the main reason for the city’s high Safety Index score is its extremely high law enforcement employee to resident ratio of 10.88 per 1,000. Few police forces in the country are this well-staffed.

Second in the ranking is Mandeville, which earned a very high Safety Index score of 0.78 based on a low violent crime rate of 1.12 per 1,000, which is nearly five times lower than the state average. At just 19.91 per 1,000, the city’s property crime is nearly as impressive, resting below both national and state averages.

The small city of Minden in the northwest part of the state is #3 in the ranking of Louisiana’s safest cities. Minden recorded just 8 violent crimes in 2017 for a total rate of 0.64 per 1,000.

At fourth place, Covington is a small city in St. Tammany Parish that has seen growth in the past decade following the relocation of many New Orleans residents that lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. The city boasts crime rates well below state averages. 

Youngsville and De Ridder share the #5 position, each earning a 0.47 Safety Index score for logging violent crime rates less than a third of Louisiana’s state average.

Due to our population parameter filtering out cities with a population under 10,000, just four communities in Alaska qualified for our ranking of the state’s safety cities. Let’s see how Alaska’s four largest cities compare in terms of overall safety.

With a safety index score of 0.15, Wasilla just edges out #2 Fairbanks, while doing much better than Alaska’s other two 10,000+ population cities. The Anchorage suburb recorded 5.35 violent crimes per 1,000 inhabitants along with 45.97 property crimes per 1K.

Second place goes to Fairbanks, which at 32,937 is over three times the size of #1 Wasilla, posted very similar crime statistics, with a slightly higher 6.224 violent crimes per 1K. However, it’s 1.34 law enforcement employees per 1000 residents is significantly lower than Wasilla’s, leading to a much lower safety index score.

Third in Alaska’s safest cities ranking is Juneau, which is about the same size as Fairbanks, yet is plagued by a 51% higher violent crime rate of 9.37 incidents per 1000 inhabitants.

With a population dwarfing other Alaskan cities, Anchorage is by far the largest in the state, as well as the least safe of those that qualify for our ranking. Anchorage ranks #4 due to a high violent crime rate of 12.03 per 1000K and a similarly high property crime rate of 54.15 per 1000K.