This month, WalletHub has released its list of the safest cities in the U.S. — and one Florida locale is just a couple of spots from the bottom.
To figure out what constitutes the “safest” areas, WalletHub’s team examined over 180 cities using factors like crime rates, traffic crashes, natural disaster risks, and financial security.
“The safest cities in America protect residents from these threats of bodily harm and property damage,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo wrote. “But on top of that, they also help secure people’s financial safety…(which) includes things like minimizing the risk of fraud and identity theft, keeping the population employed and insured, and combating homelessness.”
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Nationwide, the safest city was determined to be South Burlington in Vermont, though cities like Casper, Wyoming; and Warwick, Rhode Island came in second and third, respectively.
In the Sunshine State, the top-ranked city turned out to be Port St. Lucie, which placed high at No. 32 overall. It scored especially well in terms of home and community safety.
But all the way on the other end of the spectrum sits Ft. Lauderdale, which came in at No. 180 — just two spots from the bottom-ranked metro of Memphis, Tennessee.
While Ft. Lauderdale scored poorly across every main category, it actually tied for the worst city in terms of traffic fatalities per capita.
The full ranking of Florida cities on this year’s ranking is as follows:
RankCityScoreBest Category32Port St. Lucie65.20Home & Community Safety53Hialeah62.63Home & Community Safety59Cape Coral61.88Home & Community Safety73Pembroke Pines60.01Home & Community Safety101St. Petersburg56.55Natural-Disaster Risk116Tampa55.13Home & Community Safety124Miami54.60Home & Community Safety130Tallahassee53.97Home & Community Safety164Jacksonville43.00Natural-Disaster Risk168Orlando42.05Natural-Disaster Risk180Ft. Lauderdale36.06Home & Community Safety
Meanwhile, the categories used in this study break down as follows:
Home & Community Safety (60%)
Presence of terrorist attacks
Number of mass shootings
Murders and non-negligent manslaughters per capita
Forcible rapes per capita
Assaults per capita
Thefts per capita
Sex offenders per capita
Law enforcement employees per capita
Active firefighters per capita
EMTs and paramedics per capita
Hate crimes per capita
Share of sheltered homeless
Perception of safety
Drug poisoning deaths per capita
Traffic deaths per capita
Pedestrian deaths per capita
Road quality
Natural-Disaster Risk (20%)
Earthquake Risk Index Score
Riverine Flood Risk Index Score
Hail Risk Index Score
Hurricane Storm-Surge Risk Index Score
Tornado Risk Index Score
Wildfire Risk Index Score
Financial Safety (20%)
Underemployment rate
Unemployment rate
Share of uninsured population
Share of uninsured drivers
Foreclosure rate
Median credit score
Debt-to-income ratio
Share of owner-occupied housing units spending at least 35% of their household income on housing
Poverty rate
Fraud and other complaints per capita
Identity-theft complaints per capita
Share of unbanked households
Job security
Employment growth
Share of households with emergency savings
Retirement plan access and participation rate
Personal bankruptcy filings per capita
Share of seriously underwater mortgages
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