True to its friendly image, the Land of 10,000 Lakes has violent and property crime rates below national levels. What’s more, violent crime has dropped in Minnesota for the last ten years straight, including an 8% drop between 2017 and 2018.
While the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis are among the safest urban areas of their size in the country, they don’t make the cut for the list of Minnesota’s five safest cities, which is a collection of smaller communities spread across the state.
The safest city in Minnesota is Orono, a city of about 20,000 located on the north shore of Lake Minnetonka. Crime is nearly nonexistent in Orono: the city recorded just 6 violent crimes in 2018 and has a property crime rate less-than-a-third of the national average.
Big Lake is Minnesota’s 2nd safest city. A quiet lakeside community known for its annual “Spud Fest”, Big Lake has the lowest property crime rate in the state, along with a violent crime rate of exactly 1 offense per 1,000.
Minnesota’s 3rd safest “city” is the combined jurisdiction of the South Lake Minnetonka Police Department, comprising parts of the communities of Excelsior, Greenwood, Shorewood, and Tonka Bay. Together, they logged just 3 violent crimes in 2018.
Earning the #4 spot is Minnetrista, which continues Minnesota’s streak of remarkably low violent crime by posting a 0.39 per 1,000 violent crime rate in 2018, coupled with a property crime rate below 10 per 1,000.
The city of Stillwater, located on the St. Croix River just west of Wisconsin, rounds out the list of Minnesota’s 5 safest cities. Known as the shooting location for many popular Hollywood films, including Fargo and Grumpy Old Men, Stillwater logged 2018 violent and property crime rates of about one-third of national levels.
Minnesota’s Safest Cities
MN City Population Violent
crimeProperty
crimeLaw enforcement
employeesTotal crimes Crime rate per 1,000 Violent crimes per 1,000 Property crimes per 1,000 Law enforcement per 1,000
1 Orono 20225 6 118 31 124 6.13 0.30 5.83 1.53
2 Big Lake 11036 11 53 15 64 5.80 1.00 4.80 1.36
3 South Lake Minnetonka 12731 3 88 18 91 7.15 0.24 6.91 1.41
4 Minnetrista 10357 4 84 16 88 8.50 0.39 8.11 1.54
5 Stillwater 19467 18 151 27 169 8.68 0.92 7.76 1.39
6 Rosemount 24707 16 187 30 203 8.22 0.65 7.57 1.21
7 Farmington 23355 13 174 26 187 8.01 0.56 7.45 1.11
8 Lino Lakes 21577 12 181 29 193 8.94 0.56 8.39 1.34
9 Chaska 26962 21 227 32 248 9.20 0.78 8.42 1.19
10 Lakeville 64914 39 532 66 571 8.80 0.60 8.20 1.02
11 Champlin 25304 26 234 31 260 10.28 1.03 9.25 1.23
12 Grand Rapids 11297 9 145 23 154 13.63 0.80 12.84 2.04
13 New Ulm 13202 9 162 24 171 12.95 0.68 12.27 1.82
14 Northfield 20535 28 199 27 227 11.05 1.36 9.69 1.31
15 Hibbing 15998 44 182 27 226 14.13 2.75 11.38 1.69
16 Cloquet 11911 12 181 26 193 16.20 1.01 15.20 2.18
17 North Mankato 13794 19 144 16 163 11.82 1.38 10.44 1.16
18 Plymouth 79559 44 904 93 948 11.92 0.55 11.36 1.17
19 St. Peter 12012 14 152 18 166 13.82 1.17 12.65 1.50
20 Hutchinson 13862 28 227 35 255 18.40 2.02 16.38 2.52
21 Centennial Lakes 11062 11 148 17 159 14.37 0.99 13.38 1.54
22 Eden Prairie 64917 39 873 86 912 14.05 0.60 13.45 1.32
23 Savage 32029 36 433 41 469 14.64 1.12 13.52 1.28
24 Edina 52544 23 803 75 826 15.72 0.44 15.28 1.43
25 Cottage Grove 37102 25 546 49 571 15.39 0.67 14.72 1.32
26 New Hope 21168 14 396 43 410 19.37 0.66 18.71 2.03
27 Robbinsdale 14629 49 232 29 281 19.21 3.35 15.86 1.98
28 Ramsey 27023 27 349 28 376 13.91 1.00 12.91 1.04
29 Hopkins 18838 32 334 37 366 19.43 1.70 17.73 1.96
30 Elk River 24724 29 429 43 458 18.52 1.17 17.35 1.74
31 Rogers 13257 10 236 22 246 18.56 0.75 17.80 1.66
32 Minnetonka 53573 28 810 63 838 15.64 0.52 15.12 1.18
33 Mendota Heights 11381 16 207 20 223 19.59 1.41 18.19 1.76
34 Owatonna 25829 26 438 38 464 17.96 1.01 16.96 1.47
35 Sartell 18014 11 301 24 312 17.32 0.61 16.71 1.33
36 Golden Valley 21688 22 410 38 432 19.92 1.01 18.90 1.75
37 Marshall 13713 25 250 24 275 20.05 1.82 18.23 1.75
38 Maple Grove 72502 44 1117 81 1161 16.01 0.61 15.41 1.12
39 Faribault 23806 77 423 43 500 21.00 3.23 17.77 1.81
40 Anoka 17574 27 393 41 420 23.90 1.54 22.36 2.33
41 Inver Grove Heights 35592 90 560 45 650 18.26 2.53 15.73 1.26
42 North St. Paul 12588 15 220 16 235 18.67 1.19 17.48 1.27
43 Hastings 22799 42 412 32 454 19.91 1.84 18.07 1.40
44 Rochester 117037 227 2435 198 2662 22.74 1.94 20.81 1.69
45 Crystal 23310 34 487 38 521 22.35 1.46 20.89 1.63
46 Eagan 66981 59 1289 86 1348 20.13 0.88 19.24 1.28
47 Apple Valley 52922 63 956 61 1019 19.25 1.19 18.06 1.15
48 Fairmont 10053 12 244 20 256 25.47 1.19 24.27 1.99
49 Buffalo 16304 17 317 21 334 20.49 1.04 19.44 1.29
50 Sauk Rapids 13853 6 283 18 289 20.86 0.43 20.43 1.30
51 Shakopee 41424 75 810 56 885 21.36 1.81 19.55 1.35
52 Red Wing 16405 40 427 35 467 28.47 2.44 26.03 2.13
53 Richfield 36300 81 771 52 852 23.47 2.23 21.24 1.43
54 Moorhead 43657 61 1024 70 1085 24.85 1.40 23.46 1.60
55 Austin 24935 66 544 36 610 24.46 2.65 21.82 1.44
56 Coon Rapids 62818 83 1322 74 1405 22.37 1.32 21.04 1.18
57 South St. Paul 20260 46 505 34 551 27.20 2.27 24.93 1.68
58 New Brighton 22978 25 564 34 589 25.63 1.09 24.55 1.48
59 Oakdale 28178 37 663 39 700 24.84 1.31 23.53 1.38
60 Albert Lea 17655 26 466 30 492 27.87 1.47 26.39 1.70
61 Prior Lake 26925 40 574 30 614 22.80 1.49 21.32 1.11
62 Columbia Heights 21119 57 504 31 561 26.56 2.70 23.86 1.47
63 North Branch 10511 12 246 13 258 24.55 1.14 23.40 1.24
64 St. Louis Park 49595 70 1227 69 1297 26.15 1.41 24.74 1.39
65 Alexandria 13759 51 390 27 441 32.05 3.71 28.35 1.96
66 Burnsville 61592 114 1613 86 1727 28.04 1.85 26.19 1.40
67 Bloomington 86279 165 2592 152 2757 31.95 1.91 30.04 1.76
68 Blaine 65649 64 1705 81 1769 26.95 0.97 25.97 1.23
69 St. Paul 309756 1941 10082 768 12023 38.81 6.27 32.55 2.48
70 Brainerd 13404 61 453 30 514 38.35 4.55 33.80 2.24
71 Fergus Falls 13839 30 488 29 518 37.43 2.17 35.26 2.10
72 Brooklyn Park 81263 302 2465 140 2767 34.05 3.72 30.33 1.72
73 Brooklyn Center 31128 117 1065 60 1182 37.97 3.76 34.21 1.93
74 Mounds View 13235 23 449 22 472 35.66 1.74 33.93 1.66
75 Mankato 42606 140 1418 65 1558 36.57 3.29 33.28 1.53
76 St. Cloud 68282 262 2575 134 2837 41.55 3.84 37.71 1.96
77 Minneapolis 428261 3395 16750 1037 20145 47.04 7.93 39.11 2.42
78 Fridley 27943 85 1014 47 1099 39.33 3.04 36.29 1.68
79 Duluth 86048 308 3688 172 3996 46.44 3.58 42.86 2.00
80 West St. Paul 19798 74 960 35 1034 52.23 3.74 48.49 1.77
81 Roseville 36701 86 1829 60 1915 52.18 2.34 49.84 1.63
82 Maplewood 41339 90 1859 55 1949 47.15 2.18 44.97 1.33
83 Bemidji 15528 79 1094 35 1173 75.54 5.09 70.45 2.25
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.
