The safest small US cities and towns are in the Northeast, new study finds

When it comes to the safest small cities and towns in the country, the Northeast takes the cake.

Seven of the 10 cities with the lowest crime rates per capita can be found in the upper right quadrant of the country — and they’re all mid-size communities, according to a new survey by MoneyGeek.

“Overall, small cities and towns have 48% lower crime costs than larger cities,” researchers said.

The study analyzed last year’s FBI crime statistics for smaller cities and towns where the population falls between 30,000 and 100,000 residents.

After surveying 1,010 communities in every state, researchers came out with one clear winner.

New Jersey’s Monroe Township, located roughly 50 miles northwest of New York City, nabbed the No. 1 spot thanks to low property crime and an even lower violent crime rate, according to MoneyGeek.

The second-safest town can also be found in New Jersey: Hillsborough Township, located a mere 24 miles away.

Three other New Jersey towns also snagged spots in the top 15: Westfield, Manalapan and Princeton.

Wallingford, Connecticut; Shrewsbury, Massachusetts; Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; and Yorktown, New York were also ranked in the top 10.

Cities and towns in Indiana, Ohio, Utah and California round out the rest of the top 10.

When it comes to the least safe towns in the country — but the safest within their state — most can be found distributed primarily across the South, with Monroe, Louisiana, at the top of the list.

In some cases, the lower-ranking small cities and towns spent more money fighting crime than some of their big city counterparts — for example, Benton, Arkansas, (pop. 36,282) has a cost of crime per capita of $1,727, comparable to New York City (pop. 8.2 million), which has a crime cost per capita of $1,722, the survey showed.

Despite several outliers, the survey concluded that small-town living tends to be safer than living in large cities.

“In fact, the violent crime rate in large cities was nearly double that of small cities,” MoneyGeek said.

The safest small cities & towns by state

Here is a list of the safest small cities and towns within each state, according to MoneyGeek’s research: