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Today we’re taking a look at the latest crime numbers for one state in particular, Maine. It was one of the safest states in 2012, and in 2013 it was still pretty high up there—especially in the towns below.
These are the 10 safest places in Maine:
1. Town of Cumberland
2. Town of Cape Elizabeth
3. Town of South Berwick
4. Town of Eliot
5. Town of Lisbon
6. Town of Yarmouth
7. Town of Wells
8. Town of Oakland
9. Town of Orono
10. Town of Gorham
We’ll talk more about our winners later; first, let’s take a look at how we came up with this list in the first place.
Our Methodology
Like any of our Big Deal Lists, we relied on facts rather than opinions to come up with these places, and we wanted to be sure to get the best and most reliable. So we headed straight to the experts, the FBI, and used the most up-to-date FBI Uniform Crime Report, with crime statistics from 2013, to look at all of the places in Maine with populations of more than 5,000 people in terms of the following criteria:
- Murders
- Rapes
- Robberies
- Assaults
- Burglaries
- Thefts
- Vehicle Thefts
We divided these crimes into four categories:
- Murders
- Violent Crimes
- Property Crimes
- Total Crimes
Then, we omitted any places over 5,000 people that didn’t report crime data that year. With that, we were left with a total of 56 places, which we looked at in terms of crimes per person, as to better compare places with both large and small populations. We ranked each place with a score from one to 56, where the lower scores were the safer places.
Next, we weighted these rankings so that murders, violent crimes, and property crimes each made up 30 percent of the overall score, where the total number of crimes accounted for just 10 percent.
Lastly, we averaged these weighted rankings into one overall Big Deal Score, where the lowest score went to our winner and safest place, the Town of Cumberland.
To see more than just these top 10, you can head to the end of the post; otherwise, we’ll take a closer look at our safest spots in the following paragraphs.
1. Cumberland
The title of 2013’s safest place spot goes to Cumberland, for a good score in… well, every single one of our categories.
First of all, Cumberland had the lowest number of crimes per person out of anywhere in our ranking, with a total of just 20 for its population of 7,353.
This was made up of 19 property crimes (also the lowest per person in this category) and just one violent crime: a single report of an aggravated assault. One violent crime may seem pretty hard to beat, especially for any place with over 5,000 people, but our next place managed to do just that.
2. Cape Elizabeth
Like we mentioned above, one violent crime is pretty safe, and it earned Cumberland the second place ranking in the violence category—but better than one is none. That’s what Cape Elizabeth managed in 2013: a grand total of zero violent crimes for its population of 9,104 people.
Not only did it have the fewest violent crimes per person in the state, it also had the seventh fewest property crimes, and therefore total crimes per person, with just 98 in each category.
3. South Berwick
Like the rest of our top 10 (and actually, most places in the state), South Berwick had no murders in 2013, which of course earned it some points in our analysis, but where it really shined was in its lack of property crime compared to the rest of the state.
In 2013, South Berwick had a total of just 72 property crimes for its population of 7,275, ranking it No. 6 in this category.
This, plus its 13th fewest violent crimes, gave South Berwick the fifth fewest crimes per person in our ranking, and gave residents just a 1 in 96 chance of being the victim of any crime.
4. Eliot
Eliot may not have ranked as well as some of the places in our top 10 for its number of violent crimes—it came in 20th here—but it more than made up for that in its lack of property crimes.
In 2013, Eliot had a total of just 35 property crimes. These included 31 thefts and four burglaries—so that means it had zero vehicle thefts.
With a population of 6,257, this gave Eliot the second fewest property crimes, and ultimately, the second fewest total crimes per person in the state.
5. Lisbon
In 2013, Lisbon residents had just a 1 in 87 chance of being the victim of a crime. That’s because it had a total of just 103 crimes for the year.
That may sound like a lot—and it is compared to some of the others in our top 10—but considering its population of nearly 9,000 people, this meant it had the eighth fewest crimes per person in the state.
These were made up of 98 property crimes and five violent crimes. More specifically, the property crimes included 80 thefts, four vehicle thefts, and 14 burglaries, while the violent crimes included three rapes and one robbery
6. Yarmouth
Out of all the places we looked at, Yarmouth had the fourth fewest crimes per person overall.
These 78 crimes were made up of 72 property crimes (the fourth fewest, as well) and six violent crimes (the 21st fewest in this category).
To put that into perspective, let’s take a quick look at Skowhegan, which has a similar in population size at 8,537 people. This town, however, had a total of 516 crimes, including 498 property crimes, and 18 violent crimes.
7. Wells
Residents of this town are surely unsurprised to find it among our top 10. After all, it had just 127 total crimes in 2013. For a population of 9,803, that’s pretty good. In fact, it was the 11th best in the state.
These 127 crimes were made up of 122 property crimes (77 thefts, three vehicle thefts, and 42 burglaries) and five violent crimes (three rapes and two assaults).
8. Oakland
In 2013, this town of just over 6,200 people had the ninth fewest violent crimes per person out of anywhere in our analysis.
That’s because it had a total of just three for its population of 6,253. Compare that to, say, Belfast with roughly the same population size and three times the violent crimes, and it’s no wonder Oakland ranked so well.
It also did pretty well in the category of property crimes, with the 17th fewest per person that year. Altogether, Oakland had just 105 crimes, giving it the 16th fewest per person in our analysis.
9. Orono
With the third fewest violent crimes per person in the state, it would be hard to argue that Orono is anything resembling dangerous. These few violent crimes were comprised of one rape, one robbery, and one aggravated assault, for a total of just three for its population of 10,663.
It even had a lower than average number of property crimes per person, with the 22nd fewest out of 56.
10. Gorham
The reason this town ranked so well is mostly due to its particularly low number of property crimes. In 2013, it had a total of just 164 for the entire year. With a population of 16,764, this makes Gorham the fifth safest in this category.
Additionally, Gorham had a total of 14 violent crimes—11 assaults, two rapes, and one robbery—placing it 25th in this category.
Even though it had slightly more violent crimes per person than some of the others in our top 10, added up, Gorham still had the sixth fewest total crimes per person, and residents had just a 1 in 94 chance of being the victim of a crime.
Safety, Pretty Much Guaranteed
You can’t really beat living in one of the safest towns in one of the safest states in the country—well, you could always throw in some dark chocolate. That pretty much makes everything better.
And while we can’t exactly help you with that last part, we can certainly help you find a home in a safe city or town, like the ones mentioned above. We hear Cumberland is just lovely this time of year.
