Safest Cities in Massachusetts – 2021

Last Updated on December 27, 2020

At the state level, Massachusetts recorded very respectable crime figures in 2018: its violent crime rate is 8% below the national rate and its property crime rate is 57% of the national level. However, this doesn’t give the full picture, as many of the Bay State’s individual cities have nearly nonexistent levels of crime: the state’s cities earned 6 spots in the ranking of the 10 safest cities in the nation.

Crime rate per 1,000

Law enforcement per 1,000

Wayland is the safest city in Massachusetts, and perhaps the entire country. The Middlesex County city has earned recognition for its excellent public education system, as well as for being a great place to raise a family, and its low crime no doubt contributes to this status. Wayland recorded just one violent crime and one property crime in 2018, resulting in crime rates beyond comparison.

Hopkinton is Massachusetts’ #2 safest city. Best known as the starting point of the Boston Marathon, Hopkinton logged just 2 violent crimes in 2018, and posted a property crime rate less than 10% of the national level.

Massachusetts’ 3rd safest community is Clinton, a Worcester County town of 14,000 first settled in 1654. Clinton logged less than 30 total crimes in 2018, a rare feat for any municipality.

4th on the list is Norfolk, which, like #1 Wayland, recorded a single violent crime in 2018. In addition to its 11.8K residents, the city is home to 4 state prisons.

Norton (#5) closes out the list of Massachusetts’ 5 safest cities. The community of nearly 20K recorded just 14 violent crimes and 23 property crimes in 2018.

Massachusetts’ Safest Cities

Show entries

MA	City	Population	Violent crime	Property crime	Law enforcement employees	Total crimes	Crime rate per 1,000	Violent crimes per 1,000	Property crimes per 1,000	Law enforcement per 1,000
1	Wayland	14088	1	1	31	2	0.14	0.07	0.07	2.20
2	Hopkinton	18516	2	30	37	32	1.73	0.11	1.62	2.00
3	Clinton	14009	10	18	38	28	2.00	0.71	1.28	2.71
4	Norfolk	11872	1	21	26	22	1.85	0.08	1.77	2.19
5	Norton	19983	14	23	35	37	1.85	0.70	1.15	1.75
6	Franklin	33156	5	85	54	90	2.71	0.15	2.56	1.63
7	Southborough	10187	11	23	23	34	3.34	1.08	2.26	2.26
8	Shrewsbury	37631	4	114	61	118	3.14	0.11	3.03	1.62
9	Holliston	14924	12	40	29	52	3.48	0.80	2.68	1.94
10	Sharon	18373	13	51	33	64	3.48	0.71	2.78	1.80
11	Lexington	34050	8	113	63	121	3.55	0.23	3.32	1.85
12	North Reading	15849	16	44	33	60	3.79	1.01	2.78	2.08
13	Groton	11462	11	36	26	47	4.10	0.96	3.14	2.27
14	Bedford	14319	7	58	37	65	4.54	0.49	4.05	2.58
15	Scituate	18761	15	63	37	78	4.16	0.80	3.36	1.97
16	Sudbury	19037	21	63	40	84	4.41	1.10	3.31	2.10
17	Wellesley	29681	12	124	55	136	4.58	0.40	4.18	1.85
18	Marshfield	25922	33	83	43	116	4.47	1.27	3.20	1.66
19	Andover	36324	7	173	73	180	4.96	0.19	4.76	2.01
20	Billerica	44482	37	171	77	208	4.68	0.83	3.84	1.73
21	Norwell	11144	9	51	26	60	5.38	0.81	4.58	2.33
22	Arlington	45876	34	191	81	225	4.90	0.74	4.16	1.77
23	Pepperell	12234	13	41	17	54	4.41	1.06	3.35	1.39
24	Reading	26293	5	144	59	149	5.67	0.19	5.48	2.24
25	Grafton	18900	21	61	24	82	4.34	1.11	3.23	1.27
26	Needham	31264	16	144	54	160	5.12	0.51	4.61	1.73
27	Littleton	10292	9	56	27	65	6.32	0.87	5.44	2.62
28	Pembroke	18446	15	86	33	101	5.48	0.81	4.66	1.79
29	Marblehead	20652	20	102	43	122	5.91	0.97	4.94	2.08
30	Concord	19459	8	111	42	119	6.12	0.41	5.70	2.16
31	Dudley	11807	24	33	15	57	4.83	2.03	2.79	1.27
32	Ipswich	14107	14	74	30	88	6.24	0.99	5.25	2.13
33	Maynard	10744	21	52	27	73	6.79	1.95	4.84	2.51
34	Melrose	28552	15	146	48	161	5.64	0.53	5.11	1.68
35	Belmont	26700	5	167	59	172	6.44	0.19	6.25	2.21
36	Ashland	17860	22	90	33	112	6.27	1.23	5.04	1.85
37	Sandwich	20248	23	102	36	125	6.17	1.14	5.04	1.78
38	Hudson	20060	48	90	42	138	6.88	2.39	4.49	2.09
39	Acton	24038	26	156	54	182	7.57	1.08	6.49	2.25
40	Beverly	42114	42	243	73	285	6.77	1.00	5.77	1.73
41	Lynnfield	13141	4	93	27	97	7.38	0.30	7.08	2.05
42	Rehoboth	12268	8	97	34	105	8.56	0.65	7.91	2.77
43	North Andover	31394	35	173	51	208	6.63	1.11	5.51	1.62
44	Medway	13406	21	73	24	94	7.01	1.57	5.45	1.79
45	Belchertown	15165	25	78	25	103	6.79	1.65	5.14	1.65
46	Newton	89505	58	629	188	687	7.68	0.65	7.03	2.10
47	Hanson	10858	30	58	25	88	8.10	2.76	5.34	2.30
48	Spencer	11989	18	69	21	87	7.26	1.50	5.76	1.75
49	Northborough	15124	0	111	27	111	7.34	0.00	7.34	1.79
50	Acushnet	10576	19	69	22	88	8.32	1.80	6.52	2.08

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Methodology

To identify the safest cities, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and cities with populations under 10,000. This left 3,381 cities (out of a total of 9,251).

There are two broad classifications of crimes: violent crimes and non-violent crimes. According to the FBI, “Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force. Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. ”

We computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. We then created a crime rate as the number of crimes per 1,000 population. Then we transformed the total crime rate variable so that the skewness was reduced and normalized.

Data from 2,831 law enforcement agencies was then collected to determine police adequacy (TotalCrimes / Number of police employees). We consider that the smaller the police adequacy statistic is, the safer the city is. This variable was also transformed and normalized.

Finally, the two variables were combined to create a safety score for each city.

Safest Cities in Massachusetts – 2021

Massachusetts’ Safest Cities

Methodology

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