Safety in numbers
3 Dallas suburbs secure rankings among the safest cities in the U.S.
It seems that three Dallas suburbs are wrapped in some sort of security blanket.
A new study from personal finance website SmartAsset ranks Frisco as the safest city in the U.S. (up from No. 2 in last year’s study), with McKinney holding the No. 2 spot (up from No. 3 last year) and Plano sitting at No. 9 (down from No. 5 last year).
To come up with its list, SmartAsset examined data from 200 of the country’s largest cities across five metrics: violent crime, property crime, vehicular death rate, drug-poisoning death rate, and percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking.
SmartAsset notes that in the study, Frisco has the fifth lowest rate for violent crime (86 crimes reported per 100,000 residents), sixth lowest rate for property crime rate (972 crimes per 100,000 residents), and sixth lowest drug-poisoning death rate (7.3 deaths per 100,000 residents).
An informal poll on Niche.com indicates 98 percent of Frisco’s residents feel “very safe” or “pretty safe.”
“Both violent and property crime [are] considerably low here. The cost of living is just a little higher than the national average, but it’s worth it, considering Frisco is one of the safest places to live,” according to security company ADT.
Nearby McKinney boasts the fourth lowest property crime rate (936 crimes per 100,000 residents), sixth lowest rate for drug-poisoning deaths (7.3 deaths per 100,000 residents) and 18th lowest rate for violent crime (134 crimes per 100,000 residents).
Similar figures weren’t provided for Plano.
Other places in Texas on the list of the safest cities in the country are:
- McAllen, No. 6
- Laredo, No. 13
- Round Rock, No. 14
- College Station, No. 15
- Brownsville, No. 16 (tie)
Frisco (No. 4) and Plano (No. 5) also are ranked among SmartAsset’s five most affordable safe cities. Housing costs are less than 20 percent of the median annual household income in Frisco, according to the study, and are 20.2 percent of the median household income in Plano.
