Columbia is the Safest City in America for 2018
December 10, 2018
Originally posted on Patch.
COLUMBIA, MD — Columbia is the safest city in America. That is according to WalletHub, a personal finance site that just released its “2018 Safest Cities in America” survey.
WalletHub studied 182 cities, including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, across 39 key indicators of safety. Analysts examined home and community safety, natural disaster risk and financial safety.
Columbia ranked No. 4 when it came to “home and community safety,” a category that weighted murder and terrorist attacks heavily, while also considering the number of mass shootings, rapes, thefts, traffic fatalities and other factors. It had a “natural disaster risk” rank of 63, which took into account floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires and other risks. As for “financial safety,” Columbia ranked 34th, after an evaluation that looked at the unemployment rate, poverty rate and other factors.
Safest cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub:
Columbia, Maryland
South Burlington, Vermont
Plano, Texas
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Warwick, Rhode Island
Gilbert, Arizona
Yonkers, New York
Bismarck, North Dakota
Nashua, New Hampshire
Boise, Idaho
The survey was based on crime, road quality and unemployment, among other factors.
The least safe cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub:
St. Louis, Missouri
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
San Bernardino, California
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Little Rock, Arkansas
Detroit, Michigan
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Wichita, Kansas
Los Angeles, California
Jackson, Mississippi
Of note, nearby Washington, D.C., has the highest number of law enforcement officers per capita, according to WalletHub, which ranked it 155 overall on the list of 182 cities.
Right behind, Baltimore City ranked 156 out of 182 cities on the list as far as overall safety, with a ranking of 155 for home and community safety, 67 for natural disaster risk and 149 for financial safety.