placestats

US Counties With the Highest Safety Scores

2,086 US counties ranked by safety score, from highest to lowest. First are Arlington County, VA (1.4), Loudoun County, VA (1.39) and Madison County, ID (1.38). The middle one of the 2,086 has -0.186.

What this measures

Deaths from violence and injury (guns, crashes and overdoses), flipped so higher is safer. Homicide, suicide, drunk-driving and total injury deaths are left out, since they would count the same deaths twice. Gun deaths already include most homicides and suicides, and injury deaths include all four. Source: .

A standard deviation is a typical gap between places.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 highest counties

RankCountystandard deviations
1Arlington County, VA1.4
2Loudoun County, VA1.39
3Madison County, ID1.38
4Story County, IA1.29
5Fairfax County, VA1.29
6Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT1.26
7Morris County, NJ1.24
8Rockland County, NY1.24
9Bergen County, NJ1.23
10Somerset County, NJ1.21
11Queens County, NY1.21
12Westchester County, NY1.21
13Johnson County, IA1.2
14Carver County, MN1.2
15Hidalgo County, TX1.19
16Dallas County, IA1.19
17Montgomery County, MD1.18
18Nassau County, NY1.16
19Centre County, PA1.16
20Scott County, MN1.16
21San Mateo County, CA1.16
22DuPage County, IL1.15
23Hunterdon County, NJ1.15
24Alexandria city, VA1.15
25Ottawa County, MI1.15
26Washington County, MN1.14
27Middlesex County, MA1.14
28Riley County, KS1.14
29Saratoga County, NY1.13
30Kandiyohi County, MN1.13
31Lincoln County, SD1.13
32Cameron County, TX1.12
33Douglas County, WA1.11
34Sherburne County, MN1.1
35Santa Clara County, CA1.1
36Honolulu County, HI1.1
37Dakota County, MN1.1
38Whitman County, WA1.1
39Howard County, MD1.09
40Union County, PA1.08
41Wright County, MN1.08
42Putnam County, NY1.08
43Norfolk County, MA1.07
44Delaware County, OH1.07
45Rice County, MN1.07
46Collin County, TX1.07
47Ozaukee County, WI1.07
48Kings County, NY1.06
49Sarpy County, NE1.06
50New York County, NY1.06
51Douglas County, CO1.05
52Hamilton County, IN1.05
53Forsyth County, GA1.04
54Harrisonburg city, VA1.04
55Portage County, WI1.04
56Calumet County, WI1.04
57Utah County, UT1.04
58St. Croix County, WI1.03
59Hudson County, NJ1.03
60Buffalo County, NE1.02
61Ontario County, NY1.02
62Houghton County, MI1.02
63Winona County, MN1.01
64Blue Earth County, MN1.01
65Washington County, OR1
66Brown County, SD1
67Denton County, TX0.997
68Benton County, OR0.994
69Middlesex County, NJ0.989
70Latah County, ID0.981
71McLean County, IL0.98
72Dubuque County, IA0.98
73Marin County, CA0.979
74Union County, OH0.978
75McHenry County, IL0.973
76Kane County, IL0.961
77Hall County, NE0.96
78Monmouth County, NJ0.954
79Lancaster County, NE0.954
80Hampshire County, MA0.951
81Fort Bend County, TX0.944
82Maverick County, TX0.94
83Broomfield County, CO0.936
84Brazos County, TX0.935
85Kendall County, IL0.935
86Dubois County, IN0.932
87Maui County, HI0.932
88Clay County, MN0.931
89Warren County, NY0.929
90Geauga County, OH0.926
91Cache County, UT0.925
92Williamson County, TX0.925
93Monroe County, IL0.925
94Johnson County, KS0.924
95Newport County, RI0.916
96Clinton County, MI0.914
97Clinton County, NY0.909
98Lake County, IL0.905
99Tompkins County, NY0.905
100Williamson County, TN0.903

Every state, highest first

Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.

RankStatestandard deviations
1Hawaii0.788
2Washington0.756
3Minnesota0.747
4California0.68
5Oregon0.628
6Utah0.609
7New Jersey0.577
8Rhode Island0.536
9New York0.423
10Iowa0.372
11Connecticut0.277
12Texas0.26
13Virginia0.188
14Michigan0.18
15Maryland0.179
16Illinois0.165
17Massachusetts0.153
18Delaware0.0356
19Colorado0.0342
20Vermont0.0253
21Nevada-0.00638
22North Carolina-0.0217
23Wisconsin-0.0461
24Georgia-0.0835
25Florida-0.104
26Kansas-0.188
27Arizona-0.211
28Pennsylvania-0.347
29Idaho-0.356
30Indiana-0.392
31Maine-0.471
32Ohio-0.473
33District of Columbia-0.474
34Nebraska-0.538
35North Dakota-0.558
36South Carolina-0.563
37New Mexico-0.627
38Oklahoma-0.735
39Alaska-0.736
40Alabama-0.771
41Arkansas-0.779
42Tennessee-0.912
43Louisiana-0.999
44Wyoming-1.13
45New Hampshire-1.16
46South Dakota-1.23
47Montana-1.23
48Missouri-1.37
49West Virginia-1.48
50Kentucky-1.52
51Mississippi-1.82

More on safety score

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.