Ranking America's Safest Suburbs

When it comes to the reasons people relocate from big cities to the suburbs, crime is right up there with housing costs, traffic, and overcrowding as major motivators. Eventually, though, these things make their way beyond the city limits, and the suburbs might not actually be the quietest, cheapest, and—maybe most importantly—safest places to be. That’s why, after ranking America’s safest mid-sized cities and the most crime-free places within several states, Movoto Real Estate figured it was time to see just which suburbs can still claim to be safer than their big city neighbors.

After poring over crime data for more than 100 suburbs, Movoto concluded that the absolute safest is Carmel, IN, located just outside of Indianapolis, IN. In fact, another Indy suburb, Fishers, was the runner-up.

To produce this ranking, Movoto relied on a list of 120 places which are the largest suburbs of the 50 most populous cities in the U.S. Movoto turned to the FBI’s most recent national crime report from 2012 for data on the following:

• Property crimes per capita (burglaries, thefts, and motor vehicle thefts)
• Violent crimes per capita (murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults)
• The chances of being the victim of a crime