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Among the 50 states, Pennsylvania fares very well in terms of safety: the Keystone State’s violent crime rate is 21st lowest in the nation, while its property crime rate is 8th lowest. Pennsylvania’s overall safety looks more impressive when we examine its cities on an individual basis.

We gave each of Pennsylvania’s cities with a population over 10,000 a score on our Safety Index, which factors in FBI crime data as well as law enforcement employee numbers, and 99 of the state’s cities scored a 0.3 or above, indicating a high level of safety and crime rates considerably below national averages. What’s more, 7 Pennsylvania cities earned a score of 0.6 or higher on the Safety Index, placing them among the safest cities in the country to settle down in and raise a family.

Munhall is Pennsylvania’s safest city, garnering a 0.71 Safety Index score on the strength of an extremely low violent crime rate of 0.54 per 1,000 and a property crime rate a quarter of the national average. With a Safety Index score of 0.7, Willistown Township is close behind. The small community of near 11K didn’t log a single violent crime in 2017.

Whitemarsh Township is third in the ranking of Pennsylvania’s safest cities. The Philadelphia suburb posted an admirable 0.56 per 1k violent crime rate. Another suburb of Pennsylvania, Whitehall, lands at #4 with some of the most impressively low crime rates in the state. Whitehall logged just 4 violent crimes in 2017, the latest year for which complete statistics are available.

Three further Pennsylvania communities, Lower Merion Township, Cecil Township, and Horsham Township, truly distinguished themselves as extremely safe places to live, with each recording violent crime rates a small fraction of the nationwide average.

Safest Cities in Pennsylvania, 2019

RankCitySafety Index
1Munhall0.71
2Willistown Township0.7
3Whitemarsh Township0.68
4Whitehall0.67
5Lower Merion Township0.63
6Cecil Township0.62
7Horsham Township0.62
8Upper Providence Township, Delaware County0.59
9Upper St. Clair Township0.59
10Jefferson Hills Borough0.58
11Central Bucks Regional0.56
12Lower Moreland Township0.56
13Silver Spring Township0.56
14West Mifflin0.52
15Tredyffrin Township0.52
16Upper Southampton Township0.51
17East Whiteland Township0.5
18Buckingham Township0.5
19Mount Lebanon0.5
20Towamencin Township0.49
21Upper Dublin Township0.49
22Forks Township0.48
23Warwick Township, Bucks County0.48
24Derry Township, Dauphin County0.47
25Easttown Township0.47
26West Chester0.47
27Ferguson Township0.46
28South Fayette Township0.46
29Upper Saucon Township0.46
30South Park Township0.46
31Northampton Township0.46
32Newtown Township, Delaware County0.46
33Newtown Township, Bucks County0.46
34Emmaus0.45
35Upper Allen Township0.45
36Lower Salford Township0.44
37New Britain Township0.43
38Upper Macungie Township0.42
39Upper Gwynedd Township0.42
40Franklin Park0.42
41Adams Township, Butler County0.42
42Ephrata0.42
43Upper Uwchlan Township0.41
44Haverford Township0.41
45Peters Township0.41
46Penn Township, Westmoreland County0.41
47Meadville0.41
48Buffalo Valley Regional0.4
49Northwest Lancaster County Regional0.4
50Northern Berks Regional0.4
51Patton Township0.39
52Murrysville0.39
53Radnor Township0.38
54West Hempfield Township0.38
55Doylestown Township0.38
56Lower Burrell0.38
57Lower Makefield Township0.38
58Hampton Township0.38
59Bethel Park0.38
60Aston Township0.37
61Montgomery Township0.37
62Northern Regional0.37
63Lansdale0.37
64McCandless0.37
65Upper Merion Township0.37
66Plumstead Township0.36
67Palmer Township0.36
68Warrington Township0.36
69Upper Moreland Township0.36
70Moon Township0.36
71Pennridge Regional0.36
72Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County0.35
73Lower Gwynedd Township0.35
74North Fayette Township0.35
75West Deer Township0.35
76Franconia Township0.34
77Plymouth Township, Montgomery County0.34
78Salisbury Township0.34
79West Lampeter Township0.34
80Cranberry Township0.34
81Springfield Township, Montgomery County0.34
82St. Marys City0.33
83Phoenixville0.33
84West Hills Regional0.33
85Penn Township, York County0.32
86New Hanover Township0.32
87Marple Township0.32
88Uwchlan Township0.32
89Lower Saucon Township0.32
90Hatfield Township0.32
91West Goshen Township0.31
92Baldwin Borough0.31
93North Strabane Township0.31
94State College0.31
95Spring Township, Berks County0.3
96Whitpain Township0.3
97Nether Providence Township0.3
98Elizabeth Township0.3
99Robinson Township, Allegheny County0.3
100Shaler Township0.29
101Hampden Township0.29
102Amity Township0.29
103West Norriton Township0.29
104Bethlehem Township0.29
105Exeter Township, Berks County0.29
106East Pennsboro Township0.29
107Easton0.28
108East Hempfield Township0.28
109Limerick Township0.28
110Cumru Township0.27
111North Huntingdon Township0.27
112Douglass Township, Montgomery County0.27
113Harrison Township0.27
114Manheim Township0.27
115Waynesboro0.26
116Hilltown Township0.26
117Southwestern Regional0.26
118Logan Township0.25
119Warminster Township0.25
120Ridley Township0.25
121North Versailles Township0.24
122Westtown-East Goshen Regional0.24
123Northern Lancaster County Regional0.24
124Bensalem Township0.22
125North Middleton Township0.22
126Wyomissing0.21
127Middletown Township0.21
128Ross Township0.21
129Greensburg0.2
130Springfield Township, Delaware County0.2
131South Whitehall Township0.19
132Northern York Regional0.18
133Mifflin County Regional0.18
134Slate Belt Regional0.18
135East Lampeter Township0.18
136Northeastern Regional0.18
137Monroeville0.17
138Southern Regional York County0.16
139Lehigh Township, Northampton County0.16
140Colonial Regional0.15
141Columbia0.15
142Carlisle0.15
143Lower Pottsgrove Township0.15
144Falls Township, Bucks County0.15
145Elizabethtown0.15
146West Whiteland Township0.13
147Abington Township, Montgomery County0.13
148Richland Township, Bucks County0.13
149Millcreek Township, Erie County0.13
150Newberry Township0.12
151Scott Township, Allegheny County0.12
152Bloomsburg Town0.12
153Coal Township0.12
154Scranton0.12
155Lower Providence Township0.11
156York Area Regional0.11
157Hopewell Township0.1
158Manor Township, Lancaster County0.1
159Lower Allen Township0.1
160Muhlenberg Township0.1
161Plum0.08
162Washington Township, Franklin County0.07
163Lower Paxton Township0.07
164Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County0.06
165East Norriton Township0.05
166Kingston0.05
167Rostraver Township0.05
168Hermitage0.05
169Bristol Township0.03
170Butler Township, Butler County0.02
171Upper Chichester Township0.02
172Berwick0.01
173Pocono Township0.01
174Hanover0
175Sandy Township-0.01
176Nanticoke-0.04
177Fairview Township, York County-0.04
178Erie-0.05
179Hazleton-0.05
180Altoona-0.05
181Spring Garden Township-0.07
182Whitehall Township-0.07
183Hanover Township, Luzerne County-0.07
184Richland Township, Cambria County-0.08
185Springettsbury Township-0.09
186Center Township-0.09
187Lansdowne-0.09
188North Lebanon Township-0.1
189West Manchester Township-0.1
190Pocono Mountain Regional-0.11
191Caln Township-0.15
192Lebanon-0.15
193Chambersburg-0.15
194Stroud Area Regional-0.16
195Norristown-0.21
196Lower Southampton Township-0.24
197Upper Darby Township-0.25
198Pottsville-0.29
199Williamsport-0.29
200Washington, Washington County-0.29
201Allentown-0.37
202Penn Hills-0.38
203Swatara Township-0.39
204Philadelphia-0.4
205Pittsburgh-0.44
206Sharon-0.45
207New Kensington-0.51
208Wilkes-Barre-0.57
209Butler-0.61
210Reading-0.65
211Bethlehem-0.7
212Pottstown-0.76
213Johnstown-0.84
214Indiana-0.91
215Lancaster-0.92
216Wilkinsburg-0.99
217Yeadon-1.07
218Harrisburg-1.12
219York-1.14
220Chester-1.97
221Darby-2.43
222McKeesport-2.8

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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