Safest Cities in Pennsylvania – 2021

Last Updated on December 27, 2020

In spite of the fact that its largest city, Philadelphia, logged a crime rate nearly 3 times higher than the national rate in 2018, Pennsylvania recorded violent and property crime rates significantly below the national averages. This indicates that the relative safety of its smaller municipalities more than balances higher crime in the state’s urban areas. Let’s examine Pennsylvania’s 5 safest municipalities, all of which are designated as townships.

Crime rate per 1,000

Law enforcement per 1,000

The safest community in Pennsylvania is Penn Township of Westmoreland County, 1 of 13 townships in the state that share the same name. Penn Township’s 1.55 per 1,000 violent crime rate is impressive, yet not lower than others on the list. What really distinguishes Penn Township is its near nonexistent level of property crime: only a single crime of this nature was recorded in 2018.

South Park Township is the 2nd safest municipality in Pennsylvania. The Allegheny County township of 13.3K is located near Pittsburgh and logged just 3 violent crimes in 2018, for a rate of 0.23 offenses per 1,000.

#3 Upper Providence Township is a small community around 15 miles west of Philadelphia, yet is worlds away in terms of safety. The affluent community recorded 2018 violent and property crime rates that were a small fraction of those of the nearby large city.

4th on the list is Towamencin Township, a community of 18,443 with origins hailing back to the early 18th Century. Like Pennsylvania’s other safest municipalities, Towamencin boasts a violent crime rate significantly lower than 1 offense per 1,000.

Rounding out the top 5 is Upper Gwynedd Township, a Philadelphia suburb connected to the larger city by rail that logged less than 10 violent crimes in 2018.

Pennsylvania’s Safest Cities

Show entries

PA	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	Penn Township, Westmoreland County	19297	30	1	23	31	1.61	1.55	0.05	1.19
2	South Park Township	13332	3	23	17	26	1.95	0.23	1.73	1.28
3	Upper Providence Township, Delaware County	10478	4	18	15	22	2.10	0.38	1.72	1.43
4	Towamencin Township	18443	12	45	24	57	3.09	0.65	2.44	1.30
5	Upper Gwynedd Township	15958	9	52	24	61	3.82	0.56	3.26	1.50
6	Buckingham Township	20311	1	70	24	71	3.50	0.05	3.45	1.18
7	Silver Spring Township	18078	3	67	25	70	3.87	0.17	3.71	1.38
8	Franklin Park	14706	3	43	13	46	3.13	0.20	2.92	0.88
9	Upper Allen Township	20123	7	68	24	75	3.73	0.35	3.38	1.19
10	Cecil Township	12633	2	54	21	56	4.43	0.16	4.27	1.66
11	Adams Township, Butler County	14105	3	46	14	49	3.47	0.21	3.26	0.99
12	Northampton Township	39289	12	144	49	156	3.97	0.31	3.67	1.25
13	South Fayette Township	15788	2	59	18	61	3.86	0.13	3.74	1.14
14	Lower Salford Township	15440	7	60	21	67	4.34	0.45	3.89	1.36
15	Warwick Township, Bucks County	14618	12	54	19	66	4.51	0.82	3.69	1.30
16	Franconia Township	13343	3	47	12	50	3.75	0.22	3.52	0.90
17	West Deer Township	11973	1	48	12	49	4.09	0.08	4.01	1.00
18	Upper Saucon Township	17121	2	79	21	81	4.73	0.12	4.61	1.23
19	Central Bucks Regional	15584	9	83	30	92	5.90	0.58	5.33	1.93
20	Hampton Township	18318	14	67	19	81	4.42	0.76	3.66	1.04
21	Ferguson Township	19551	8	88	24	96	4.91	0.41	4.50	1.23
22	West Mifflin	19773	29	93	38	122	6.17	1.47	4.70	1.92
23	Murrysville	19759	4	92	23	96	4.86	0.20	4.66	1.16
24	Pennridge Regional	11013	5	53	15	58	5.27	0.45	4.81	1.36
25	New Britain Township	11252	3	56	15	59	5.24	0.27	4.98	1.33
26	Upper Southampton Township	15038	6	87	25	93	6.18	0.40	5.79	1.66
27	Plumstead Township	14244	11	66	18	77	5.41	0.77	4.63	1.26
28	Upper St. Clair Township	19758	8	119	34	127	6.43	0.40	6.02	1.72
29	Newtown Township, Bucks County	22880	5	128	32	133	5.81	0.22	5.59	1.40
30	Douglass Township, Montgomery County	10644	8	50	13	58	5.45	0.75	4.70	1.22
31	McCandless	28475	5	140	30	145	5.09	0.18	4.92	1.05
32	Upper Uwchlan Township	11506	0	56	11	56	4.87	0.00	4.87	0.96
33	Northwest Lancaster County Regional	20029	4	100	21	104	5.19	0.20	4.99	1.05
34	Northern Lancaster County Regional	36089	20	136	26	156	4.32	0.55	3.77	0.72
35	Southern Chester County Regional	14974	16	71	18	87	5.81	1.07	4.74	1.20
36	Baldwin Borough	19586	17	104	25	121	6.18	0.87	5.31	1.28
37	Horsham Township	26615	7	190	48	197	7.40	0.26	7.14	1.80
38	East Pennsboro Township	21750	11	113	22	124	5.70	0.51	5.20	1.01
39	Forks Township	15545	8	98	22	106	6.82	0.51	6.30	1.42
40	Buffalo Valley Regional	12660	4	75	15	79	6.24	0.32	5.92	1.18
41	Elizabeth Township	13087	9	63	12	72	5.50	0.69	4.81	0.92
42	Hampden Township	30399	10	156	26	166	5.46	0.33	5.13	0.86
43	Jefferson Hills Borough	11309	20	60	16	80	7.07	1.77	5.31	1.41
44	Easttown Township	10668	17	56	14	73	6.84	1.59	5.25	1.31
45	Warrington Township	24582	18	158	35	176	7.16	0.73	6.43	1.42
46	Upper Macungie Township	24995	7	164	32	171	6.84	0.28	6.56	1.28
47	Lower Makefield Township	32768	10	219	42	229	6.99	0.31	6.68	1.28
48	Uwchlan Township	19044	16	111	22	127	6.67	0.84	5.83	1.16
49	New Hanover Township	13201	2	69	10	71	5.38	0.15	5.23	0.76
50	Lower Providence Township	27051	33	154	33	187	6.91	1.22	5.69	1.22

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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 Pennsylvania – 2021

Pennsylvania’s Safest Cities

Methodology

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