At the
Movoto Real Estate Blog, we know a thing or two about finding the perfect place to live—after all, in addition to bringing you rankings like
these and some pretty awesome
maps, we also sell houses.
It makes sense, then, that we’ve got certain areas pretty well figured out. There are those that are best for
schools; those that are
caring; and then, perhaps most importantly, there are certain places that are just safer than others. Today we’re taking a look at those places in Alaska.
Which place was the safest of all in the Last Frontier? Here are the 10 safest places in Alaska:
1. City of Cordova
2. Borough of Palmer
3. City of Seward
4. City of Valdez
5 .City of Nome
6. City of Juneau
7. City of North Pole
8. City of Unalaska
9. CDP of Petersburg
10. City of Ketchikan
Keep reading to see just how we came up with this list and why each of these 10 places are safer than the rest.
Our Methodology
We started out by making a list of all of the most populous places in Alaska, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. We then used the
2012 FBI Uniform Crime Report to obtain crime stats relating to:
Murder
Rape
Robbery
Assault
Burglary
Theft
Vehicle theft
We divided these crimes into four different categories:
- Murders
- Violent crimes
- Property crimes
- Total crimes
Once we omitted any places in the state that did not report their crime data to the Bureau, we were left with a total of 20 places.
From there, we calculated each place’s crimes per 100,000 residents in order to fairly compare places of all population sizes.
We then ranked each place with a score from one to 20 in all of our categories, with one being the safest possible score.
We weighted murders, violent crimes, and property crimes so that they would each be worth 30 percent of the overall score, and the total number of crimes would be worth 10 percent.
Finally, we averaged all of our weighted scores into an overall
Big Deal Score, where the place with the lowest score was our safest, Cordova.
Now that you know the method behind this list, let’s take a closer look at each of our safest places in Alaska.
1. Cordova
Like most of the other places in our top 10, there were no murders in Cordova in 2012, and, as a whole, Cordova had the second fewest number of violent crimes in the state.
Those violent crimes included 174 assaults per 100,000 people. That means there were no murders, rapes, or robberies there in 2012.
Cordova also had a low number of property crimes (the third lowest in the state), with just 1,959 property crimes per 100,000 people, making for a total of 2,133 crimes per 100,000 for the year.
2. Palmer
This quaint borough just outside Anchorage has a reputation of being a good place for families, and it’s no wonder why.
In 2012, Palmer had the third lowest number of violent crimes in the state (290 per 100,000 people) and the fourth lowest number of property crimes (2,033 per 100,000).
Of the violent crimes, there were no murders, 32 rapes, 32 robberies, and 226 assaults per 100,000 people. Of the 2,033 property crimes, there were 113 were vehicle thefts, 1,662 thefts, and 258 burglaries per 100,000.
This may sound like a lot, but remember, in order to fairly compare small and large places in the state, we calculated these crime rates per 100,000 people. To put it into perspective, where Palmer had 2,323 crimes per 100,000 people, Anchorage had 4,353.
3. Seward
Home to breathtaking nature and some of the best festivals in the state, this little city not only has character—it’s also safe.
Case in point: in 2012, some cities like Anchorage or Fairbanks had well over 4,000 crimes per 100,000 people, and one city, Kotzebue, had more than 8,000 crimes per 100,000.
Seward, on the other hand, had just 2,826, including 2,754 property crimes and 72 violent crimes per 100,000 people—the lowest number of violent crimes in the state.
4. Valdez
Valdez’s 3,064 crimes per 100,000 for 1012 included 2,721 property crimes and 343 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
Of course, these numbers aren’t as low as, say, Cordova’s, but they’re also not nearly as high as most places in the state.
For example, Kotzebue, one of the bottom-ranking places in our analysis, had a total of 8,639 crimes per 100,000 people in 2012, including 2,340 violent crimes and 6,299 property crimes per 100,000.
5. Nome
Out of all the places we looked at in our analysis, Nome ranked the very best for its low number of property crimes in 2012: just 1,165 per 100,000 people. Of those, there were 238 vehicle thefts, 609 thefts, and 318 burglaries.
To put that into better perspective, take a look at Wasilla. Here there were 256 vehicle thefts, 4,982 thefts, and 745 burglaries per 100,000 people that same year.
Unfortunately, Nome ranked 14th in the category of violent crimes, with 609 per 100,000 people, which isn’t exactly the worst, but it certainly prevented it from being even higher on our list.
6. Juneau
With a population of over 32,000, it may come as a surprise to some people that Juneau, a relatively large city for Alaska, made our top 10.
But as the numbers show, larger doesn’t always mean more dangerous. After all, Kotzebue has less than 4,000 residents and it came in among the worst-ranking.
Back to Juneau, though. In 2012, the capital city had the eighth lowest number of violent crimes in the state (353 per 100,000 people), the 10th lowest number of property crimes (3,376 per 100,000) and the 9th lowest number of crimes overall (3,729). None of these included murder.
7. North Pole
Moving to North Pole, AK, home of Santa and year-round Christmas cheer, you’d probably expect this city to be nothing but safe and inviting. And you’d be right.
In 2012, North Pole had 3,715 crimes per 100,000 people (ranking eighth in this category), including 3,348 property crimes and 367 violent crimes, none of which were murders.
In fact, not only did North Pole have no murders in 2012, it also had no rapes and no robberies, meaning that all 367 violent crimes were assaults.
8. Unalaska
The only thing un-Alaska about this city is its low crime rate, considering the fact that it had fewer violent crimes, property crimes, and overall crimes than nearly anywhere in the state.
To be more specific, it had the second lowest number of property crimes (1,391), the fourth lowest number of violent crimes (297), and the very lowest number of overall crimes (1,688 per 100,000 people).
The only reason this unlikely place for crime didn’t rank higher on our list was because, unfortunately, of the 297 violent crimes per 100,000 people, 23 were murders, which means that it ranked No. 20 in this category.
9. Petersburg
This little city on Mitkof Island ranked better than most places in the state across the board.
For example, for its 400 violent crimes per 100,000 people, it ranked 11th; for its 3,531 property crimes, 12th; and for its zero murders, it tied for first.
To put that into perspective, take a look at another Alaska city, Bethel, which may have ranked better in both its number of property crimes and overall crimes (2,146 and 2,924 per 100,000, respectively), but when it came to violence, Bethel ranked No. 15, plus No. 19 for its 16 murders per 100,000 people.
10. Ketchikan
The final spot on our list goes to Ketchikan, mostly for its lack of violence in 2012.
Overall, there were 354 violent crimes per 100,000 people reported here, which included no murders, 110 rapes, 49 robberies, and 195 assaults per 100,000 people.
There were also 377 burglaries, 3,456 thefts, and 97 vehicle thefts, for a total of 3,930 property crimes per 100,000 people, and a grand total of 4,284 crimes per 100,000 people.
The Last Frontier: Not As Dangerous As You’d Think
Alaska’s nickname, “The Last Frontier,” might bring to mind all kinds of dangers: bears, natural disasters, avalanches. In reality, though, folks in Alaska are quite safe. Well, at least in terms of crime.
If you’re interested in seeing just how safe all of the places we looked at ranked, feel free to explore the table below.
