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CHICAGO - A new report shows the safest and most dangerous cities in America, based on the cost of crime in those areas, and two Illinois cities are at and near the top of the list.
MoneyGeek looked at 263 cities that have populations of 100,000 or more residents. They reviewed data from a number of sources, including FBI statistics from 2021 (which are the most recent crime statistics) — and the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings across the country.
The top 10 safest cities are:
- Naperville, IL
- Sunnyvale, CA
- West Covina, CA
- Carmel, IN
- Glendale, AZ
- Meridian, ID
- Provo, UT
- Joliet, IL
- Jurupa Valley, CA
- Sugar Land, TX
The following factors weighed into the analysis:
- Crime Cost per Capita (The societal cost of crime per resident)
- Violent Crime Rate (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault)
- Property Crime Rate (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson)
- Cost of Crime
Taking the spot for safest city in America, Naperville's crime cost per capita is $156, according to MoneyGeek.
Taking the eighth spot, Joliet's crime cost per capita is $168.
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Out of the 263 cities on the list, Aurora and Elgin made the top half. Aurora came in at 81 with a crime cost per capita of $840 — and Elgin at 117 with a crime cost per capita of $1,135.
In the bottom half were Springfield ($2,105) at 185, Rockford ($2,779) at 213, and Chicago ($4,060) at 239.
The most dangerous city on MoneyGeek's list is St. Louis, Missouri, with a crime cost per capita of $8,457.
Of the 15 most dangerous cities, nine were large cities with over 300,000 residents.
The survey warned that crime statistics don’t capture a community’s whole story.
"Behind all these averages that people like to cite about the crime rates in different communities are individual people and their decisions about how they choose to engage in their community," Jesse Bruhn, Annenberg assistant professor of education and economics at Brown University, said in the report.
If you want to check out the full analysis, visit MoneyGeek's website.
Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.