The safest cities in America have been ranked, with one New York City suburb sneaking up high on the list.
The new ranking, released by finance website WalletHub, compared over 180 U.S. cities, including the 150 most populous cities, and ranked them on several important metrics, including community and home safety, natural disaster risks and financial safety.
The cities were compared using 41 key indicators of safety, ranging from traffic fatalities per capita and assaults per capita to the unemployment rate and the percentage of the population that is uninsured.
Coming out in first place was Warwick, Rhode Island. The Ocean State’s third-largest city scored highly due to having the third-lowest rate of aggravated assaults and the 32nd lowest number of murders out of all the cities in the study. It has the seventh-lowest number of thefts per capita and provides good conditions for financial safety.
Meanwhile, Yonkers, the third most populous city in all of New York state, has ranked fifth on the list.
The city of about 211,000 sits about 15 miles north of Manhattan and ranked third in WalletHub’s home and community safety category. Yonkers also ranks 29th in natural disaster risks and 118th in financial safety, according to the study.
Its neighbor, New York City, scored much lower overall, ranking only 117 on the list.
The other safest cities included Overland Park, Kansas, which was second on the list, Burlington, Vermont, ranked third, and Juneau, Alaska, in fourth place.
Overland Park performed well in part due to having safe roads. The city has the fifth-lowest pedestrian fatality rate and the 21st-lowest percentage of uninsured drivers. It also has good conditions for financial safety, with the 14th lowest unemployment rate in the country.
Meanwhile, Burlington scored well due to having the 26th lowest murder rate and an overall low risk for several types of natural disasters and severe weather.
WalletHub looked at 182 cities, including the 150 most populous U.S. cities and at least two of the most populated cities in each state, when conducting the study.
The financial website compared three metrics: Home and Community Safety, Natural Disaster Risk and Financial Safety. Each city could get at most 60 points for the first category, and 20 points maximum for the second and third.
Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale and weighted accordingly. The cities were then ranked on their composite safety scores.
WalletHub releases a new list of “Safest Cities in America” each year.
