In October, WalletHub released its annual ranking of the safest cities in the United States.
The personal finance company compared 182 cities across 41 key indicators of safety including: traffic fatalities per capita, assaults per capita, flood risk level, wildfire risk level, unemployment rate, job security, median credit score, debt-to-income ratio, and percentage of the population that is uninsured.
For the final ranking, the cities were scored across three categories:
- Home and community safety
- Natural disaster risk
- Financial safety
WalletHub also used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, FBI, and more agencies to determine the results.
Nashua, New Hampshire is the safest city in America
Nashua ranked as the No. 1 safest city in the U.S., according to the WalletHub report.
The city is located in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire and is considered one of the best places to live in the state, according to Niche. The report's findings show that Nashua has the second-fewest assaults per capita and is among five U.S. cities that tied for having the lowest unemployment rate in America.
Nashua lies directly on the Massachusetts border, which means residents from that state can ¯ and often do — take advantage of New Hampshire's lack of sales tax.
The city is also referred to as a "gateway" because it is a center point of travel and economic and cultural transmission between Boston and Concord, New Hampshire, according to the city's website.
Top 10 safest cities in America
- Nashua, N.H.
- Columbia, Md.
- South Burlington, Vt.
- Gilbert, Ariz.
- Warwick, R.I.
- Portland, Maine
- Casper, Wyo.
- Yonkers, N.Y.
- Burlington, Vt.
- Scottsdale, Ariz.
After taking the top spot for five years, Columbia, Maryland, came in second place on this year's list of safest cities in the U.S.
The Maryland city has a population of over 104,000, according to the 2020 U.S. census. After Baltimore, Columbia has the second-highest population in Maryland.
Columbia, Maryland, is in Howard County, which has seen a decline in violent and property crimes since 2018. Robberies declined 46 percent between 2019 and 2021, assaults dropped 13 percent during that period, and burglaries declined 33 percent, according to the city's website.
The third safest city on the list is South Burlington, Vermont.
Although South Burlington didn't rank No. 1 overall, it is the top city for financial safety.
South Burlington was the No. 2 city in the country for women to thrive in, in another recent WalletHub ranking.
But the city also tied with Cleveland and Cincinnati, Salem, Oregon, Washington, D.C. and Seattle for the most hate crimes per capita.
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