Safewise has released its 7th annual Safest Cities in California Report with the Town of Danville in Contra Costa County again topping the list.
Safewise also stated Only 40% of Californians feel safe in their state, with 72% worried about gun violence and 77% concerned about the pandemic. When it comes to safety, daily concern seems to be the California state of mind. The Golden State placed in the top five for four of the eight concerns we asked about.
In Contra Costa County, aside from Danville staying the top city, only Pleasant Hill (+7) and Richmond (+1) moved up in their ranking. Everyone else moved down on the list.
Here are the 10 Safest Cities in California for 2021
- Danville
- Rancho Santa Margarita
- Moorpark
- Rancho Palos Verdes
- Aliso Viejo
- Lake Fores
- Yorba Linda
- Laguna Niguel
- Mission Viejo
- Lincoln
Where Contra Costa County Cities Ranked
- 1 – Danville (no change)
- 21 – Oakley (-5)
- 25 – San Ramon (-18)
- 45 – Martinez (-8)
- 92 – Brentwood (-11)
- 165 – Walnut Creek
- 192 – Pittbsurg (-13)
- 197 – Concord (-12)
- 198 – Pleasant Hill (+7)
- 200 – Antioch (-2)
- 224 – Richmond (+1)
Other Notables
- 49 – Pleasanton
- 55 – Livermore
- 63 – Tracy
- 167 – San Jose
- 205 – Los Angeles
- 211 – Sacramento
- 220 – Berkeley
- 221 – Compton
- 225 – San Francisco
- 228 – Stockton
- 229 – Oakland (last)
Violent crime in California: Fear vs. reality
Californians are highly concerned about their safety and have the crime rates to back it up, yet only 25% use personal protection (US 34%). Even the safest cities aren’t immune to the violent crime across the state.
- All 50 safest cities in California have violent crime rates below the state, regional, and national averages.
- 38 of the 50 cities saw less than 100 violent crimes in the last year and 17 kept violent crime rates under 1 per 1,000 people.
- There was a higher percentage of rape in the safest cities (13%) than across the state (9%).
- Statewide, there were over 105,000 cases of aggravated assault.
- California saw 39 mass shooting incidents in 2020. This number is reflected by the 72% of Californians who said gun violence was a top safety concern.
- The police are a concern for residents of The Golden State as well. 61% said they worried about police violence daily.
- There were 294 officer-involved shootings in California in 2020. 48% of Californians say they have confidence in law enforcement.
- 25% of Californians use some type of personal protection like pepper spray or stun guns.
- 54% say their personal safety has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- California was the third most concerned state when it comes to gun violence.
Property crime in California: Fear vs. reality
Property crime in California is well above the national average of 21.1 per 1,000 people. But those rates are steadily dropping year over year. All of the safest cities landed below the state, regional, and national rates for property crime.
- 35 of the safest cities saw under 1,000 property crimes in the last year and 14 of those were under 500 incidents.
- Larceny-theft was the most common property crime in The Golden State with over 626,000 incidences in the last year.
- There was a higher percentage of larceny-theft in the safest cities (74%) than across the state (68%).
- 64% of Californians use some form of property protection with security systems being the most popular (30%), followed by security cameras (29%).
- 8% of Californians use firearms to protect their property compared to the national average of 26%.
- 38% say the security of their property has been affected by the pandemic.
A closer look at the safest cities in California
For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.
- The top three safest cities in California hold their title and spot for the second year in a row. Five of the 50 saw no change in ranking.
- The top two cities, Danville and Rancho Santa Margarita, tied for the number of property crimes in the last year (296). But Danville came out on top this year for its lower violent crime rate (0.5).
- 17 of the 50 safest cities kept violent crime rates under 1 per 1,000 people.
- Baldwin Park, California was the most improved city this year, jumping from number 100 to number 50. Meanwhile, Pacifica dropped ranking 21 to 40.
- Santa Clarita (pop. 218,103) was the largest city on our list and had a violent crime rate of 1.3 and property crime rate of 9.4.
- Dana Point (pop. 33,779) was the smallest city on our list and jumped 19 spots to number 27 this year.
- The top 12 cities on our list had violent crime rates under 1 per 1,000.
- Aggravated assault made up over half of the violent crime incidents in the safest cities. There were over 2,500 cases in the last year within all 50 cities.
- 22 of the 50 safest cities reported zero murders in the last year.
- Danville, Rancho Santa Margarita, Moorpark, Aliso Viejo, and Cupertino held the same spots from last year.
2 comments
I love the city named Moorpark. As kids, we would look at many of the city names in southern California and when we cam to “Moorpark” … we read it backwards which read it as KrapRoom
That was funny “kraproom”??
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