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As if you needed another reason to look over your shoulder, a report has ranked several cities in the United States by safety to determine where residents can feel most secure–and it’s not looking great for the Sunshine State.
In fact, one local city is in the top three most unsafe. Two other cities in Florida make the top 20–again, most unsafe. And Hialeah, meanwhile, may turn out to be South Florida's redeeming quality.
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But the devil’s in the details. The data broken down shows exactly in what categories Florida ranks so poorly. Hint: Physical violence isn’t the only thing that leads to a lack of safety.
These are the safest (and most unsafe) cities in America in 2024, according to WalletHub.
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The most unsafe cities in the U.S.
WalletHub determined a safety score for 182 cities in the country, and ranked them by this figure.
The most unsafe are Memphis, Tennessee, followed by Detroit, Michigan, which rank among the top five in assaults per capita.
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And the third most unsafe city is none other than Fort Lauderdale in Broward County.
According to WalletHub, it ranks low in the home and community safety and financial safety categories, and high in the natural-disaster risk category.
If we take a closer look, we see it’s tied for most traffic fatalities per capita, and also tied for second-lowest percentage of households with emergency savings.
But if you’re confused about how that adds up to put it up there with Memphis and Detroit, take a look at how WalletHub calculates these rankings.
The data to determine the safest and most unsafe cities in the U.S.
WalletHub weighed several data points to reach a score for three different categories (home and community safety, financial safety and natural-disaster risk). Then, they added them to get a total safety score.
But to determine the individual categories, they looked at metrics like:
Home and community safety:
- Presence of Terrorist Attacks
- Number of Mass Shootings
- Crimes per capita, including murder, forcible rapes, assaults, thefts and hate crimes
- Sex offenders per capita
- Law enforcement employees per capita
- Traffic fatalities and more
In this category, Fort Lauderdale ranks no. 11.
Financial safety:
- Unemployment rate
- Fraud
- Share of uninsured population
- Foreclosure rate
- Credit score
- Job security
- Share of households with emergency savings and more
In this category, Fort Lauderdale ranks no. 7.
Natural-disaster risk:
- Earthquake Risk
- Riverine Flood Risk
- Hail Risk
- Hurricane Storm-Surge Risk
- Tornado Risk
- Wildfire Risk
In this category, Fort Lauderdale ranks no. 8.
The most safe and unsafe cities in Florida
The data shows that there are several other Florida cities that aren't all that safe, particularly when considering the percentage of households with emergency savings: Miami, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines are all tied in this category for second-lowest.
But let's show you the rankings before we dive into the details. Remember: this list is out of 182 cities.
The safest city in Florida
Port St. Lucie wins this title at no. 32. (And still, it ranks fairly low when it comes to financial safety.)
Hialeah safety ranking in Florida
But this is where Hialeah, dubbed "La Ciudad que Progresa" in Spanish (the City that Progresses, in English), earns bragging rights. According to the survey, it earns the title of second-safest in Florida, and ranks no. 53 in the country.
More facts about the safety of several Florida cities
Cape Coral follows closely behind Hialeah at no. 59. Then we have:
- Pembroke Pines at no. 73
- St. Petersburg at no. 101
- Tampa at no. 116
- Miami at no. 124
- Tallahassee at no. 130
- Jacksonville at no. 164
- Orlando at no. 168
And of course, Fort Lauderdale at the bottom at no. 180.
The safest cities in the U.S.
If you're sick of the bad news and just want to know where you'll be moving to, alright, we won't make you wait any longer.
These are the safest cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub.
- South Burlington, VT
- Casper, WY
- Warwick, RI
- Burlington, VT
- Boise, ID
They all rank fairly high across the three major categories.
The "worst" thing you can say about any of them is that Warwick sits at no. 52 in terms of financial safety, and Boise is no. 46 in natural-disaster risk.
But anyway, why go so far in search of safety? Just move to Hialeah.
