These Are The 10 Safest Places In West Virginia

If you’re contemplating a move to the Mountain State, well, who could blame you? West Virginia is beautiful, it’s exciting, plus, you can get away with eating pepperoni rolls here for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sure, all of this sounds pretty great—but is this great state… safe? Well, in the latest statewide safety ranking here at the Movoto Real Estate blog, we’ve discovered that it is—especially in places like Weston. Here are the 10 safest cities in West Virginia: 1. City of Weston
2. City of Ravenswood
3. City of Grafton
4. City of Ripley
5. City of Point Pleasant
6. City of Hurricane
7. City of Charles Town
8. City of Keyser
9. City of Bridgeport
10. City of Vienna
In the next paragraphs, we’ll tell you how we come up with these lists in the first place; then we’ll take a closer look at the safest places, one by one.

Our Methodology

Just like last year’s list, we created this one using data from the experts themselves: the FBI. We used the most recently released FBI Uniform Crime Report, which included data from 2013, and looked at places in West Virginia with more than 3,000 residents in each of the following categories:

• Murders
• Rapes
• Robberies
• Assaults
• Burglaries
• Thefts
• Vehicle Thefts

Then we divided these crimes into four categories:

• Murders
• Violent Crimes
• Property Crimes
• Total Crimes

Once we omitted any places that did not report data that year, we were left with a total of 27 locations. We calculated the crimes per person in each of these places, in order to fairly compare cities with both large and small populations. We ranked each place with a score from one to 27 in each category, where the lower scores were the safer places. In our analysis, we gave more weight to murders, violent crimes, and property crimes (they accounted for 30 percent of the overall score) and less to total number of crimes (just 10 percent) in order to take into account the differing severity of crimes. And finally, we averaged all of these weighted scores into one overall Big Deal Score, where the lowest went to our safest place, Weston. To see more than just these 10 safest places, feel free to head to the bottom of the post. Otherwise, let’s take a closer look at the safest spots.

1. Weston

This little city is not just the safest in West Virginia, but with a chance of crime of just 1 in 452, likely one of the safest places in the region. The reason residents have such a low likelihood of being the victim of a crime here, is that the total number of crimes for the entire year was just nine. That’s nine crimes for the entire year, including seven property crimes and just two violent crimes. With its population of 4,076, this meant that Weston had the second fewest property crimes and the fourth fewest violent crimes per person.

2. Ravenswood

The name of this little city may sound a little spooky, but as residents know, there’s nothing dangerous about it. Starting with its low overall number of crimes: just 45 for the year. With its population of 3,852, this gave it the fourth lowest number of crimes per person. These crimes were made up of the fifth lowest number of property crimes and the very lowest number of violent crimes per person—a total of 45 and zero for the year, respectively. That absence of violent crimes for the year is a big reason why Ravenswood jumped from No. 8 in last year’s ranking to No. 2 in this one.

3. Grafton

This Taylor County city might  not have had quite the low number of violent crimes as the previous year, but it didn’t have as high a number as, say, Elkins, which had a total of 68 violent crimes for its population of just 7,183 and was the most violent place in the state. Compare that to Grafton which had just three violent crimes for its population of 5,183, and it’s no wonder these two ranked the way they did. Grafton also had the third lowest number of property crimes per person, with a total of just nine for the year, giving residents just a 1 in 431 chance of being the victim of any type of crime.

4. Ripley

Ripley may have ranked No. 2 on our last ranking, but still, ranking fourth is nothing to sneeze at. With the third lowest number of crimes overall and the very lowest number of property crimes per person, Ripley is clearly still very safe. To be a bit more specific, the city saw only five property crimes in 2013, all of which were thefts. Additionally, there were three violent crimes, all of which were assaults. With its population of 3,249, this gave Ripley the seventh fewest violent crimes per person.

5. Point Pleasant

Why is Point Pleasant among in our top 10? That would be mostly thanks to its seventh lowest number of crimes per person in 2013. These 89 crimes included 86 property crimes and just three violent crimes; that’s the eighth and sixth lowest per person, respectively.

6. Hurricane

Hurricane came in high on our list for a low overall number of crimes, but specifically for its low number of violent crimes. In 2013, this city had a total of just three violent crimes. With its population of 6,382, this meant it had the third lowest number of violent crimes per person. This, plus its 158 property crimes (the 12th lowest per person), gave Hurricane the 11th lowest number of crimes per person overall.

7. Charles Town

In 2013, Charles Town had a total of just 81 crimes. With its population of 5,421 people, this meant it had the sixth fewest crimes per person. These 81 crimes included 71 property crimes (the sixth fewest) and 10 violent crimes (the 13th fewest per person). To be a bit more specific, these property crimes were made up of 51 thefts, 18 burglaries, and just two motor vehicle thefts. Like all of the others in our top 10, the violent crimes included no murders, but the city did see eight aggravated assaults and two robberies.

8. Keyser

Last year Keyser ranked sixth on our list, where this year it comes in as No. 8. Don’t worry, Keyser residents, the difference in your ranking mostly comes from other places becoming safer; not your city becoming more dangerous. Keyser had an especially low number of property crimes in this most recent FBI report: a total of just 102 for the year. These included 91 thefts and 11 burglaries, and made placed Keyser at No. 7 in this category. Additionally, Keyser had three rapes, one robbery, and five assaults, giving it the 12th fewest violent crimes per person in the state.

9. Bridgeport

Bridgeport may have fallen from fourth last year to ninth this year, but it’s still clearly one of the safest places in the state, especially when it comes to a lack of violence. In 2013, Bridgeport had a total of just 12 violent crimes, all of which were aggravated assaults. With its population of 8,425, this meant Bridgeport had the ninth fewest violent crimes per person. This, plus its 201 property crimes (180 thefts, 18 burglaries, and three motor vehicle thefts), gave Bridgeport the 12th fewest number of total crimes per person for the year.

10. Vienna

Vienna ranked well for its particularly low number of violent crimes. In 2013, it had had just 10 violent crimes for the year. Now this may sound like a lot compared to some of the others in our top 10, but keep in mind, Vienna is easily the largest place among our winners, with a population of nearly 11,000. This meant it had the eighth fewest violent crimes per person for the year. In addition to these 10 violent crimes, Vienna had a reported 299 property crimes, giving the city a total of 309 crimes, or the 14th fewest crimes per person for the year.

Just One More Thing

With its beauty, excitement, and, yes, of course, all of those pepperoni rolls, it seems hard to imagine West Virginia getting much better. Add safety onto that list, though, and this state is a whole mountain of awesome! Cheesiness aside, if you’re interested in finding a home in one of these 10 cities, or even one of the many listed below, just get in touch. We’ll not only tell you which are the safest, most exciting, or even best in the state; we’ll help you find your new home.