Although Oklahoma’s statewide crime rates are not very impressive (the state is 40th in property crime and 39th in violent crime), many of the Sooner State’s cities are very safe, logging low rates of violent and property crime. Here’s a glance at Oklahoma’s five safest cities.
Weatherford earns the honor of being named Oklahoma’s safest city on the strength of a violent crime rate of just 1.64 per 1,000, which is less than half of the national average. The city’s below average property crime rate is not bad, either.
In the #2 spot is Elk City, a city in Beckham County with remarkably low crime numbers. The city, a stop along Historic U.S. Route 66, logged a mere 9 violent crimes in 2017 for an average below 1 violent crime per 1,000. Elk City’s property crime rate is less impressive, yet still below the national average.
Oklahoma City suburb Yukon is #3 in the ranking of Oklahoma’s safest cities. Yukon’s violent crime rate is less than a third of the Oklahoma state average, making it a safe, family friendly community to settle down in for those commuting into OKC for work.
Fourth place, Miami is the capital city of Oklahoma’s Miami Tribe as well as that of four other Native tribes. While its crime rates are not as impressive as those of the state’s top three safest cities, Miami still logged violent and property crime rates under state and national averages.
At #5 is El Reno, another Oklahoma City suburb that posted a 2.77 per 1K violent crime rate and 17.2 per 1K property crime rate.
Safest Cities in Oklahoma, 2019
| Rank | City | Safety Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weatherford | 0.58 |
| 2 | Elk City | 0.56 |
| 3 | Yukon | 0.45 |
| 4 | Miami | 0.37 |
| 5 | El Reno | 0.31 |
| 6 | Guymon | 0.31 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 0.31 |
| 8 | Mustang | 0.3 |
| 9 | Guthrie | 0.27 |
| 10 | Edmond | 0.24 |
| 11 | Claremore | 0.23 |
| 12 | Duncan | 0.22 |
| 13 | Owasso | 0.21 |
| 14 | Broken Arrow | 0.18 |
| 15 | Altus | 0.18 |
| 16 | Bixby | 0.16 |
| 17 | Sand Springs | 0.15 |
| 18 | Choctaw | 0.15 |
| 19 | Stillwater | 0.14 |
| 20 | Sapulpa | 0.14 |
| 21 | Jenks | 0.11 |
| 22 | Moore | 0.09 |
| 23 | Glenpool | 0.05 |
| 24 | Bartlesville | 0.03 |
| 25 | Bethany | -0.06 |
| 26 | Midwest City | -0.07 |
| 27 | Norman | -0.1 |
| 28 | Woodward | -0.1 |
| 29 | Tahlequah | -0.11 |
| 30 | Enid | -0.14 |
| 31 | Ada | -0.2 |
| 32 | Warr Acres | -0.38 |
| 33 | Chickasha | -0.44 |
| 34 | Durant | -0.45 |
| 35 | Ardmore | -0.64 |
| 36 | McAlester | -0.65 |
| 37 | Ponca City | -0.88 |
| 38 | Okmulgee | -0.95 |
| 39 | Oklahoma City | -1 |
| 40 | Del City | -1.03 |
| 41 | Lawton | -1.04 |
| 42 | Muskogee | -1.59 |
| 43 | Tulsa | -1.61 |
| 44 | Shawnee | -1.63 |
Methodology
We used the most recent FBI crime statistics to create state rankings. There were initially 7,430 cities in the data set. After filtering out the cities with populations of less than 10,000, 2,929 cities remained. We then calculated violent crime rates and property crime rates by dividing the crime numbers by the population to get rates per 1,000. We also calculated the ratio of law enforcement workers to per 1,000. These were weighted with -50% for the violent crime rate, -25% for the property crime rate, and +25% for the law enforcement rate. The resulting metric gave us a the safety index score. The higher this number more safe the city is.
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