Think metropolitan areas aren’t as safe as rural communities? Guess again.
According to this year’s U.S. News & World Report rankings of the safest counties in the U.S., nine city-adjacent areas made the list.
These include eight from the metro sections of New York and New Jersey such as Bergen County in the Garden State and the New York counties of Queens, Suffolk, Kings, and Westchester.
And the safest community in the nation? It’s due east of New York City: Nassau County.
To find these safe enclaves, the report did a deep dive into 3,000 counties and county equivalents for its healthiest communities report. And within this research, the all-important public safety category was measured on a 100-point scale across seven criteria, including violent crime, property damage, car crash rates, distance to emergency facilities, and others.
(Getty Images)
Public safety rankings of these top communities also factored in the number of firefighters and police on the payrolls and how many folks live close (within a mile) to a firehouse or a hospital with an emergency room, as a share of the total population.
If buying a home in a safe area is important to you, check out this top 10 list below, along with the public safety score plus median home price for each area.
Nassau County, NY
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 100
Median home price: $849,000
Nassau County, with a population of close to 1.4 million, is an urban economic powerhouse close to New York City. It leads the list thanks to the high dollars it allocates for health and emergency services.
Alexandria, VA
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 97.95
Median home price: $699,900
Alexandria, located just 8 miles from our nation’s capital, also took top marks for spending on health access and emergency personnel.
Rockland County, NY
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 93.86
Median home price: $789,000
Rockland County, with a population of 337,326, spent $1,090 per capita on health and emergency services—more than double the national average of $440.
Rio Blanco County, CO
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 92.24
Median home price: $424,500
Rio Blanco County is one of the smallest in the top 10, with a population of just 6,511. Still, its rural economy is high-performing, per the data, which powers its safety net to No. 4 on the list.
Arlington County, VA
(Realtor.com )
Public safety score: 91.28
Median home price: $799,900
Arlington County is also right outside Washington, DC, and it takes the fifth spot in terms of safety thanks to its low rate of accidental deaths.
Westchester County, NY
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 90.66
Median home price: $749,000
Nearly a million people live in Westchester County—and lots of them take commuter rails or drive their own cars to the Big Apple for work. Still, this region scored high in safety rankings for its low vehicular fatality rate.
Manassas Park, VA
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 89.57
Median home price: $481,760
This urban Virginia community has just 17,123 residents, and its roads are safer than those in much of the country with very few fatal accidents.
Putnam County, NY
(Realtor.com )
Public safety score: 88.89
Median home price: $599,900
It’s a long commute from Putnam County to New York City, but a bunch of its 98,000 residents make the 60-mile trip. And they also enjoy low violent crime rates.
Bergen County, NJ
(Realtor.com)
Public safety score: 88.52
Median home price: $789,000
About 950,000 people live in this metro area county—and most of them feel safe because they live very close to fire stations and hospitals with emergency departments.
Brown County, MN
(Realtor.com )
Public safety score: 88.34
Median home price: $239,900
In the Midwest, Brown County is doing well in safety as it boasts low numbers of fatal car wrecks and it spends generously on emergency and health services.
