The place where you live should truly feel like home—somewhere you can relax and feel secure. However, achieving that sense of safety can be a challenge, particularly in bigger cities.
Some cities are certainly safer than others. SmartAsset took a closer look at which of the largest U.S. cities was the safest.
To reach this conclusion, they analyzed the 50 most populous cities, assessing several factors such as rates of violent crime, property crime, and vehicle mortality rates, among other metrics.
At the top of their list is San Jose, California, located on the West Coast. San Jose performed impressively across all metrics they examined, boasting the third-lowest violent crime rate relative to its population and the fifth-lowest property crime rate.
Just a five-hour drive south, Los Angeles ranks as the second safest city, mirroring San Jose’s strong performance across crime indicators, particularly with a significantly lower vehicle mortality rate per 100,000 people.
Three Texas cities made it into the top ten: Fort Worth came in third, followed by Arlington at seventh, and El Paso in eighth. Notably, these cities feature a lower rate of excessive drinking among adults compared to the rest of the top ten—except for San Jose.
Here’s how the top 25 safest cities shaped up according to SmartAsset:
- San Jose, California
- Los Angeles, California
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Arlington, Texas
- El Paso, Texas
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Long Beach, California
- Miami, Florida
- San Diego, California
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Sacramento, California
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Dallas, Texas
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Tucson, Arizona
- Mesa, Arizona
- Seattle, Washington
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Houston, Texas
- New York, New York
Conversely, Memphis, Tennessee, stands out as the least safe city, followed closely by Albuquerque and Detroit in the rankings of danger.
If you want to dive deeper into the full rankings and details, SmartAsset has all the statistics available on their site.





