These Are The 10 Safest Places In Alabama
How sweet a home is Alabama? Find out as we examine the top 10 safest places in the Heart of Dixie.
By Laura Allan
People looking to relocate have a lot of things to think about, and one of those is definitely how safe an area is. If you’re moving to Alabama, you may be at a total loss when deciding which place is safe enough for you. That’s what we’re here to help with.
Here at the Movoto Real Estate Blog, we’ve analyzed crime data from the Heart of Dixie to produce a ranking of the 10 safest places therein. Helena came out on top, joined by nine other low-crime places:
1. City of Helena
2. City of Mountain Brook
3. City of Vestavia Hills
4. City of Pleasant Grove
5. City of Alabaster
6. City of Hartselle
7. City of Fort Payne
8. City of Madison
9. City of Hoover
10. City of Moody
You might be wondering where the bigger cities like Montgomery or Birmingham are. They were a bit further down the list, which you’ll see in the full ranking at the end of this article.
How We Created This Ranking
Our ranking is based on the 2012 FBI Uniform Crime Report and covers all places in Alabama with populations of 10,000 or larger. If your city doesn’t appear, it’s because local law enforcement does not report crime statistics to the FBI.
We gathered data for seven types of crime:
Murder
Rape
Robbery
Assault
Burglary
Theft
Vehicle theft
We then divided these crimes into four distinct categories:
Murders
Violent crimes
Property crimes
Total crimes
To create our ranking, we calculated the number of each type of crime on a per 100,000 person basis. This ensured that places with different population sizes could be compared fairly, and is a common practice in comparing crime rates.
Using this data, we ranked each place from 1 to 52 for each crime category, with one being safest. We then weighted the ranking so that murder, violent crime, and property crime each comprised 30 percent of the final score, while total crime made up 10 percent.
