2nd Year in a Row,Columbia Named Safest City In America For 2019
December 3, 2019
Columbia has been named the safest city in America by WalletHub in its comparison of cities across the country.
By Kristin Danley-Greiner, Patch Staff
Original Article ….Read More
COLUMBIA, MD — For the second year in a row, Columbia has been named the “Safest City in America” by the personal financial website WalletHub. Columbia’s total score was 85.33 and ranked third for “home and community safety, 63rd for “natural disaster risk” and 77 for “financial safety.”
In order to select the safest city, WalletHub compared 182 cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state. They used 41 relevant metrics that were graded on a 100-point scale. They then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.
Some of the criteria used were assaults, thefts, active firefighters per capita, drug poisoning deaths, hurricane storm surge risk level and debt-to-income ratio.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball thanked emergency responders, social workers, community advocates and others for helping Columbia achieve the honor.
“My vision for Howard County is to innovatively expand opportunity and foster the best quality of life for all who live, work, or visit Howard County while ensuring we efficiently, effectively and respectfully serves our residents, businesses and visitors. For every resident of our county to live their best life, they must not only be safe, but also feel safe in their homes, their neighborhoods and throughout all of Howard County,” said Ball in a statement. “This accolade is a testament to the excellent quality of life we cherish in Howard County. However, we must and we will continue to do better and make sure every community in Howard County is the safest it can be.”
Here’s how Columbia scored on top criteria:
- Home & Community Safety Rank: 3
- Natural Disaster Risk Rank: 63
- Financial Safety Rank: 77
WalletHub compared the 182 cities across 41 relevant metrics of safety, including the number of mass shootings, the unemployment rate and the quality of roads.
Each relevant metric was listed with its corresponding weight, and the cities were subsequently graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the safest possible city.
“Besides the types of hazards that can cause bodily injury or other physical harm, taking an unaffordable second mortgage, forgoing health insurance or even visiting unsecured websites are also ways people run into danger,” authors of the WalletHub study wrote.”At the top of the list of worries is the availability of affordable health care.”
Here are the top 10 safest cities in the nation:
- Columbia, Maryland: 85.33
- Yonkers, New York: 84.80
- Plano, Texas: 83.54
- Gilbert, Arizona: 83.44
- South Burlington, Vermont: 83.33
- Virginia Beach, Virginia: 83.22
- Bismarck, North Dakota: 82.92
- Nashua, New Hampshire: 82.84
- Chandler, Arizona: 82.54
- Warwick, Rhode Island: 82.17