Ridgewood, One of The Safest Towns in America

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  according to Safewise.com , you probably already have an opinion about how safe or dangerous your current hometown is. But those feelings aren’t always aligned with reality. To help you know for sure whether your city is a place where people still leave their doors unlocked (don’t do that!) or if it’s a bit more crime-riddled than you thought, we’ve identified the 100 safest cities in America.

Is There More Crime Today Than 20 Years Ago? Safewise says the that we are constantly bombarded with scary headlines and graphic images of violence and crime, so it’s easy to assume crime is worse than ever across America. But the numbers don’t back that up.

According to FBI data, the nation’s violent and property crime rates both fell between 2016 and 2017—reflecting the trends of the past two decades.¹ Violent crime dropped by 49% between 1993 and 2017.² There was a slight increase in violent crime in 2015 and 2016 but it took another downward turn in 2017.Property crime has decreased even more—falling by 50% between 1993 and 2017. Unlike violent crime, property crime hasn’t seen an increase since 2001.³

What Does Crime Look Like in the 100 Safest US Cities? This year Safewise raised our population threshold and added an extra layer of data with our State of Safety report—a study that explores what people in every state are most worried about when it comes to crime and safety.

The 100 cities that made the Safewise list represent 18 states and every region, although the Northeast dominates with 70% of the country’s safest cities. When it comes to violent crime, these cities saw 504 total offenses in 2017. Assault was the most common violent crime, but more people fear robbery, according to the State of Safety. Overall, the safest cities boast an average violent crime rate of 0.20 incidents per 1,000 people—compared to the national average of 4.49.

There were 17,468 property crimes among the 100 safest cities, with larceny-theft accounting for 83%. Once again, perception doesn’t match reality—break-ins are the most-feared property crime, but there were only 2,055 burglaries among the cities that made our list. On a broader scale, the average property crime rate of the safest cities is 7.13 crimes per 1,000 people, which is nearly 22 fewer incidents than the national average of 27.11.

Ridgewood New Jersey came in 56th in the entire country with a violent crime rate of .23 and property crimes of 6802 , folks you really should start locking your car doors at night.