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.