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It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! No, it’s not a surprise early-release of the final “Hunger Games” film, and, no, it’s not Christmas again already…
The FBI has just released the most recent and updated crime reports from around the country, and the Movoto Real Estate blog is celebrating by bringing you the 10 safest places in each state, 2015 style.
So grab your party hats and some mud pie, because today we’re heading to the 10 safest places in Mississippi. And we’re pretty excited.
1. City of Madison
2. City of Petal
3. City of Long Beach
4. City of Ridgeland
5. City of Olive Branch
6. City of Ocean Springs
7. City of Horn Lake
8. City of Southaven
9. City of Gautier
10. City of Starkville
Now if you’re a frequenter of the Movoto blog, and we hope you are, some of these places undoubtedly look familiar from last year’s list of safest cities. For those who are a bit newer to our site, we’ll take the following section to explain how we came up with this list.
Our Methodology
As we somewhat excitedly mentioned earlier, the FBI recently released the 2013 Uniform Crime Reports. With these updated numbers, we looked at all of the places in Mississippi with populations greater than 10,000 residents in terms of the following:
- Murders
- Rapes
- Robberies
- Assaults
- Burglaries
- Thefts
- Vehicle Thefts
We divided these into four categories:
- Murders
- Violent Crimes
- Property Crimes
- Total Crimes
And then, in order to keep a level playing field, we calculated the number of crimes per person for each of these 61 places and ranked them with a score from 1 to 61 in the four categories.
Since some crimes are just plain worse than others, we decided to weight murders, violent crimes, and property crimes to each make up 30 percent of the overall score, while the total number of crimes made up just 10 percent.
And the last step: we averaged these weighted scores into one overall Big Deal Score, where the lowest score was our safest place. Congratulations, Madison.
To see more than just these 10 safest places, you can head down to the bottom of the post. Otherwise, get excited with us, because we’re going to take a closer look at just why each of these winners was safer than the rest.
1. Madison
Madison, congratulations, once again! Last year you made the No. 3 spot on our list, and now this! The reason for this bump in the rankings is pretty simple: Out of all of the places we looked at, Madison had the lowest total number of crimes per person.
Yep, with 179 total crimes for the year and a population just over 25,000, Madison ranked No. 1 in this category. It also came in as the best for its lack of property crimes, with a total of just 163 for the year.
Madison ranked highly for violent crime as well, with just 16 violent crimes for the year—none of which were murders.
2. Petal
Petal may have gone from first place to second over the past year, but out of over 60 places, second place is certainly nothing to sneeze at. The reason Petal ranked better than 59 other places in our analysis is because, well, it did really well in all of our categories.
First of all, it had the fewest violent crimes per person in the state, with an actual total of zero for the entire year. Of course, that means there were no murders. In fact, there were only 109 property crimes, ranking it second in this category.
Overall, Petal residents had just a 1 in 100 chance of being the victim of a crime.
3. Long Beach
This ain’t the first rodeo for this Harrison County city. What we mean is, not only did it rank within our top 10 on last year’s safest places list, it even came in at No. 1 on our list of best places in Mississippi.
And it seems to only be getting better, with a drastically decreased number of property crimes—from 325 in 2012 to just 316 in 2013. Interestingly, the total number of crimes (330) stayed exactly the same, but the population grew by over 300 people!
With this larger population of 15,467, Long Beach had the third fewest total crimes per person in the state.
4. Ridgeland
Ridgeland may have made last year’s list of best places in Mississippi, but it wasn’t until this year that it ranked among the safest. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, Ridgeland had the eighth lowest number of total crimes per person in the state.
These crimes included a total of 662 property crimes (also the eighth lowest per person) and just 40 violent crimes (the seventh lowest). None of these violent crimes were murders or rapes.
5. Olive Branch
This suburb of Memphis has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. for the past several years. Why? Well, aside from the catfish at Sweet Pea’s Table, there’s the impressively low crime rate.
In 2013, for example, Olive Branch had just 982 total crimes for its nearly 35,000 residents, giving it the seventh fewest per person. These included 916 property crimes and 66 violent crimes—none of which were murders.
6. Ocean Springs
Ocean Springs may be known as the City of Discovery, which seems to be true when it comes to the arts, culture, and charm. But if crime is what you’re looking for, well, good luck finding it.
Not only did Ocean Springs have zero reported murders in 2013. It also had the ninth lowest number of violent crimes per person overall. These included seven robberies and 26 aggravated assaults.
Additionally, Ocean Springs had the 15th fewest property crimes per person, all adding up to the 12th fewest crimes per person total.
7. Horn Lake
Another newcomer to this year’s list, Horn Lake ranked well for its particularly low number of crimes per person. In 2013, with its population of 26,670, Horn Lake had just 613 crimes, giving it the fourth fewest crimes per person in the state.
These included 578 property crimes (the fourth fewest per person) and 35 violent crimes (the fifth fewest per person). Unfortunately, of these 35 violent crimes, there was one reported murder, which is the only reason Horn Lake didn’t rank higher on our list.
8. Southaven
Here’s a fun fact: Even though Southaven’s population went up by nearly 1,000 people over the year, its number of crimes per person actually went down—especially when it came to property crime.
In fact, in 2013, Southaven had the 10th fewest property crimes per person out of anywhere in the state—just 1,455 for its population of nearly 51,000.
Now this may sound like a lot, compared to, say, Petal, but consider this: Joplin, which has about 1,000 fewer residents than Southaven, had nearly three times as many property crimes that same year.
9. Gautier
As residents undoubtedly know, Gautier is much more than a charming resort community. It’s also a safe place to raise a family.
In 2013, it had the 18th fewest total number of crimes per person in the state, including the 20th fewest property crimes and 16th fewest violent crimes per person.
More specifically, it had a total of 711 crimes, divided into 663 property crimes and 48 violent crimes, none of which were murders.
10. Starkville
The final spot on our list goes to Starkville, because it did very well in all of our categories.
In 2013, Starkville had a total of 650 crimes. With its population of 24,519, this meant it had the sixth fewest per person. These crimes included 608 property crimes (again, the sixth fewest per person) and just 42 violent crimes (the eighth fewest.)
But there’s a reason Starkville didn’t rank higher on our list, and that reason was the one murder reported in 2013. This put Starkville at No. 29 in this category, and ultimately, No. 10 on our list.
Almost as Cool as Katniss
All right, so maybe this wasn’t the final “Hunger Games” or an extremely early Christmas (we really should start doing that every two months, don’t you think?), but some of us are really excited about these new safety rankings—and if you live in any of these top 10 places, you should be, too.
If you don’t happen to live in one of these 10 places, don’t worry, that can be fixed. See, aside from creating lists like this one, we can also help you find your new home. So get in touch.
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