Jacksonville is ranked among the least safe cities, according to a new study by personal finance company WalletHub.
The analysis of Safest Cities in America landed the First Coast urban hub near the bottom of the rankings. WalletHub researchers compared 182 cities across three categories — home and community safety, natural disaster risk and financial safety — using 41 metrics scored on a 100-point scale, with 100 being the safest.
Jacksonville scored low. The Northeast Florida city posted a safety score of 39.61, placing it as the 176th safest city in the country. That’s only six spots from the bottom of the rankings.
Jacksonville scored poorly in every category, coming in 170th for home and community safety, 177th for natural disaster risk and 166th for financial safety. Jacksonville was the lowest-ranked Florida city on the list, too.
No Sunshine State town cracked the top 20. Port St. Lucie was the highest-ranked Florida city, coming in 25th with a safety score of 65.01.
“When people think about safety in a city, their minds probably immediately go to things like the crime rate, auto fatality rate or risk of natural disasters,” said Chip Lupo, an analyst for WalletHub.
“The safest cities in America protect residents from these threats of bodily harm and property damage, but on top of that, they also help secure people’s financial safety. Financial safety includes things like minimizing the risk of fraud and identity theft, keeping the population employed and insured, and combating homelessness.”
Cape Coral and Pembroke Pines were the only other Florida communities to crack the top 50, coming in 33rd and 37th, respectively.
Juneau, Alaska, ranked the safest city in the U.S. with a safety score of 75.89. That was followed by Warwick, Rhode Island, and its score of 72.35 and Overland Park, Kansas, in third with a 70.19 safety score.
New Orleans ranked as the least safe city, finishing last at 182nd with a 30.66 safety score. Its in-state neighbor Baton Rouge finished 181st with a score of 34.2, while Baltimore came in 180th with a 36.7 safety score.
