(NEXSTAR) – While there are many aspects you may consider when choosing a city to live in – the job market and income statistics, what the weather is like, and how permanent daylight saving time would impact sunrises there, for example – there is one aspect that may be of greatest concern: how safe the area is.
Ranking a city’s safety can depend on multiple factors. A recent analysis by personal finance site SmartAsset considered four such metrics to find the safest big city in the U.S.
Unlike the rankings it released earlier this year, SmartAsset limited its review to cities with a population of 250,000 or more. It then scored each city based on its rates of violent crimes, property crimes and auto fatalities, as well as its natural disaster risk.
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Based on these metrics, SmartAsset determined that Virginia Beach, Virginia, is the safest large city in the U.S. Its “relatively low” disaster risk combined with its second-lowest violent crime rate helped bolster its standing in SmartAsset’s rankings. The city also recently ranked among the best for raising a family.
Only one other Virginia city ranked among the top 10 safest cities:
Though it ranked just outside the top 10 at No. 12, Irvine, California, boasts the lowest violent crime rate among all of the cities analyzed by SmartAsset. Gilbert, Arizona, had the lowest property crime rate, but ranked at No. 24. Boston had the lowest rate of auto fatalities.
Plano, Honolulu and Pittsburgh, while among the safest cities, all have the highest-possible disaster risk level, SmartAsset determined.
At the bottom of SmartAsset’s overall list is Memphis, Tennessee, largely driven by its high crime and auto death rates, which were the worst across the list. Fellow Tennessee city Nashville also ranked in the bottom 10:
San Francisco, California
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oakland had the highest property crime rate across all 83 cities ranked, followed by Memphis.
You can view SmartAsset’s full report below:
Earlier this year, SmartAsset ranked cities with smaller populations, coming in between 65,000 and 250,000, based on the same metrics. In that study, SmartAsset ranked Broomfield, Colorado, as the safest mid-sized city.
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Other high-ranking cities, which can be viewed here, are located in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Iowa, Utah, Indiana, Wisconsin and Idaho.
At the bottom of that ranking was Little Rock, Arkansas.
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