Safest Cities in Arizona 2019

paradise valley
Paradise Valley

Based on the most recent FBI crime statistics, Arizona is one of the safer states in the country, with property and violent crime rates below the national average. In fact, many of Arizona’s communities are even a great deal safer than the state average, as long as you are adequately protected from the sun.

The data was compiled by Backgroundchecks.org in an effort to determine the safest states in the U.S. The study looked at 2,929 cities with populations over 10,000. Researchers calculated violent crime rates and property crime rates by dividing the crime numbers by the population to get rates per 1,000. They also calculated the ratio of law enforcement workers to per 1,000. These were weighted with -50% for the violent crime rate, -25% for the property crime rate, and +25% for the law enforcement rate. The resulting metric resulted in the safety index score. The higher this number more safe the city is.

Maricopa County’s Paradise Valley, by some accounts the wealthiest community in Arizona, is also its safest, earning a Safety Index score of 0.82. With extremely low rates of 0.41 violent crimes and 15.18 property crimes per 1,000 residents, Paradise Valley truly lives up to its name.

In terms of safety, #2 Oro Valley, a suburb of Tucson, is not far behind Paradise Valley, with even lower violent and property crimes than the prior entry in the ranking. Its Safety Index score is only lower due to a slightly lower ratio of 2.94 law enforcement officers per 1,000 residents compared to Paradise Valley’s 3.08.

Florence, one of the oldest towns in the state, ranks #3 on the list due to impressively low crime rates, including a property crime rate of just 4.8 per 1,000 that bests the previous two entries on the list.

Fourth is Marana, a fast-growing community also in the Tucson area notched a property crime rate higher than the top 3 at 26.24 incidents per 1,000, but is still a very safe city with a violent crime rate below 1 incident per 1,000 residents.

Closing out Arizona’s top five is the small city of Cottonwood, in Yavapai County. Cottonwood benefits from a large ratio of law enforcement employees to residents: 4.62 for every 1,000.

Arizona’s second largest city, Tucson, came in dead last.

Safest Cities in Arizona, 2019
Rank City Safety Index
1 Paradise Valley 0.82
2 Oro Valley 0.8
3 Florence 0.47
4 Marana 0.44
5 Cottonwood 0.44
6 Bullhead City 0.43
7 Somerton 0.43
8 Buckeye 0.4
9 Nogales 0.38
10 Sahuarita 0.36
11 Scottsdale 0.36
12 Gilbert 0.29
13 Maricopa 0.25
14 San Luis 0.22
15 Surprise 0.22
16 Prescott Valley 0.2
17 Apache Junction 0.18
18 Lake Havasu City 0.14
19 Camp Verde 0.06
20 Chandler 0.04
21 Peoria 0.02
22 Douglas -0.01
23 Coolidge -0.01
24 Mesa -0.06
25 El Mirage -0.13
26 Goodyear -0.13
27 Payson -0.16
28 Prescott -0.16
29 Show Low -0.22
30 Snowflake-Taylor -0.24
31 Yuma -0.25
32 Avondale -0.26
33 Sierra Vista -0.36
34 Tempe -0.4
35 Flagstaff -0.43
36 Eloy -0.44
37 Kingman -0.58
38 Glendale -0.62
39 Phoenix -0.88
40 Tucson -1.23

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Under the leadership of Arizona Daily Independent Editor In Chief Huey Freeman, our team of staff reporters work tirelessly to bring the latest, most accurate news to our readers.