Which cities or counties in the top-rated safe states drove the statewide low crime rates in 2024?
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Executive summary
National crime rates fell to multi‑decade lows in 2024, with violent crime roughly half of its 1991 peak and the homicide rate around 5.0 per 100,000 in 2024 [1] [2]. State‑level “safest” rankings highlight Northeastern states and counties — notably New Jersey and New York suburbs like Nassau, Rockland and Westchester counties — and small cities/towns such as Columbus, Indiana and South Burlington, Vermont that pulled statewide figures down [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. Which states produced the low statewide crime rates — and why those states matter
Researchers and data compilers point to a cluster of Northeastern states and some small, less‑urban states as having the lowest statewide crime burdens in 2024. New Jersey is repeatedly cited as among the safest states in 2024, leading with low assault and homicide rates [3]. The Northeast as a region posted violent and property crime rates below the national average, which helps explain why state aggregates there look favorable [7]. National declines — violent crime and property crime at their lowest since the 1970s — mean state rankings reflect both genuine local safety and the broader national trend [8] [1].
2. Local drivers: suburbs and small counties dragging state rates downward
Multiple local studies and reporting show the statewide low rates are often driven by low‑crime suburbs and small counties rather than by big cities. U.S. News’s Healthiest Communities report puts Nassau County, NY, atop the list of safest counties and notes that the New York metro area supplied many of the top 25 counties [9] [4]. Coverage from CBS, PIX11 and local outlets confirms Nassau, Rockland and Westchester counties as major contributors to New York’s strong standing in county‑level safety measures [4] [5]. Bergen and Putnam counties are other named examples in New Jersey and New York that pull regional averages down [10] [11] [12].
3. Cities that moved the needle inside “safe” states
At the city level, analyses emphasize smaller cities and affluent suburbs. MoneyGeek and other lists single out places like Columbus, Indiana (named the safest small city by one study), and Irvine, California, Virginia Beach, and Thousand Oaks among the safest larger cities — all of which have low per‑capita violent and property crime and therefore reduce statewide averages when they’re numerous [6] [13] [14]. WalletHub and Fortune emphasize Vermont and small New England cities such as South Burlington as safety outliers that lift their states’ profiles [15].
4. A caution on measurement: definitions, reporting and population thresholds
Comparisons across states and cities are shaped by methodology. Some rankings use FBI Crime Data Explorer counts, some lower the population threshold in sparsely populated states, and others convert crimes into an estimated “cost of crime” per capita — each change can reorder which places look safest [16] [14]. The Pew briefing and Council on Criminal Justice warn that reporting gaps, victim underreporting and differences in which jurisdictions submit full offense data mean conclusions at the city or county level must be treated cautiously [17] [7].
5. The role of a few large cities in national declines — and the opposite effect at state level
While statewide declines reflect many low‑crime counties, national drops in homicides and violent crime in 2024 also came from steep improvements in a handful of historically high‑crime cities (e.g., Baltimore, St. Louis) according to long‑form analyses; those city shifts can produce large national effects without changing some state rankings if the rest of the state still has higher rates [18] [19]. Conversely, states with many low‑crime counties (New York suburbs, parts of New Jersey, Vermont) show strong statewide performance even if a few cities underperform [4] [5].
6. Competing narratives and political use of the data
Advocates and analysts agree violent and property crime fell in 2024 — yet the data is already used to make competing claims. Some political actors point to the drop in murder rates as vindication of law‑and‑order policies; critics and independent analysts note the decline predates recent policy pushes and caution against attributing causation solely to one administration or tactic [2] [20]. Human Rights Watch and other observers stress the declines coexist with debates over criminal justice reform and misinformation about trends [21].
7. Bottom line for readers: where to look next
To understand which cities and counties truly drove a state’s low 2024 rate, consult the primary FBI city/county tables and county‑level health/safety studies cited here (U.S. News county rankings, MoneyGeek, WalletHub, Council on Criminal Justice) rather than headline state rankings alone [9] [14] [15] [7]. Available sources identify Nassau, Rockland and Westchester counties (NY), Bergen and Putnam (NJ), small cities like Columbus, IN, and Vermont towns such as South Burlington as concrete local examples that moved state and regional averages [4] [5] [6] [15]. Sources do not attempt a single definitive attribution of every state’s low rate to specific counties — further cross‑referencing with FBI county tables is required to name every driver (not found in current reporting).