(NEXSTAR) — If you’re looking to move to a Colorado suburb, there may be a number of aspects you’re considering — what are the nearest schools like, is it a walkable area, how close is it to your job are all relatively common questions.
You’re also likely wondering how safe the area is. As you may expect, there are a number of things that can impact the perceived safety of the suburb.
SmartAsset, a personal finance website, reviewed 370 suburbs across the 100 largest cities in the U.S. and analyzed them based on multiple safety-related metrics: violent crime rates and property crime rates based on FBI data as well as rates of adults engaging in excessive drinking and deaths related to traffic accidents and drug poisonings from County Health Rankings.
Overall, SmartAsset found suburbs on the East Coast and in the Midwest were among the safest. Suburbs in the West and South ranked further down on the list.
Included in the analysis were seven Colorado suburbs.
The highest ranking was Castle Rock, the county seat of Douglas County. It came in 10th overall on SmartAsset’s list, partially because of its relatively low rate of deadly crashes: 4.4 per 100,000 residents.
Evergreen, the mountainous community found along Highway 74 west of Lakewood, was the second-highest-rated Colorado suburb, tying for 81st with Amherst, Ohio.
Below are the other suburbs that made the list, as well as their overall rank:
- Woodland Park (#198, tied with Derby, Kansas)
- Broomfield (#207)
- Golden (#270)
- Fountain (#289)
- Lakewood (#319)
Of those suburbs, Castle Rock had the lowest rate of violent crime per 100,000 residents at 55, the fewest vehicular deaths at 4.6 per 100,000, and the lowest rate of deaths due to drug poisoning at 8 per 100,000. Evergreen had the lowest property crime rate at 411 per 100,000.
Alternatively, Lakewood had the highest rates of violent crime (684 per 100,000) and property crime (5,381 to 100,000), while Fountain had the worst rates of vehicular mortality (13.2 per 100,000) and drug poisoning mortality (29.8 per 100,000).
Nationally, Great Falls, Virginia, a Washington D.C. suburb located along the Potomac River ranked highest on SmartAsset’s list. The census-designated location had the second-lowest violent crime rate at 6.81 per 100,000 residents (coming in behind Edgerton, Wisconsin, with a crime rate of 0) and one of the lowest vehicle mortality rates.
Fort Bliss, Texas had the lowest overall property crime rate (218 per 100,000 residents). Lexington and Somerville Massachusetts tied for the fewest vehicular deaths at 3.6 per 100,000 while Waukee, Iowa had the lowest rate of deaths due to drug poisonings at 6.1 per 100,000.
Not every suburb had such low rates, of course.
Gonzales, Louisiana had the worst overall safety rating. The Baton Rouge suburb had the second-worst property crime rate at 7,466 per 100,000 residents.
Florida had the most suburbs ranking among the bottom of SmartAsset’s list, including DeLand, which ranked as the second-worst overall behind Gonzales.
SmartAsset’s full list and methodology can be found here.
Another recent analysis of FBI data, conducted by U.S. News and World Report, found states in the Northeast — Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut — were largely the safest, reporting lower rates of violent crime and property crime than others. Colorado ranked as the 44th overall on that list.
