Is Minneapolis safer than Denver? How about New York City versus Seattle? Forbes magazine has ranked the top 10 safest cities in the U.S.
The magazine used four criteria: workplace deaths, violent crime, fatal crashes and natural disasters.
And the winner is: Minneapolis. The city ranks in the top 10 in all four categories.
The Midwest placed four metropolitan areas in the top-10 list. Milwaukee came in #2, Cincinnati #9, and Cleveland tied for #10 with Denver.
Is New York City really unsafe? Not according to this survey. It ranked #8.
Milwaukee had the lowest natural disaster risk of the cities considered. Portland, OR, had the lowest crime rate and came in #3 overall.
Boston and Seattle were tied for fourth because of low traffic fatality rates. Why do they have fewer traffic deaths per capita? They have better mass transit systems that keep drunk drivers off the road.
When it comes to measuring workplace deaths, the industries located in the cities come into play. There are fewer deaths per capita in areas like Seattle and San Jose (#7 overall) where there are lots of technology and service jobs. Pittsburgh and Indianapolis didn’t make the top-10 list because of more industrial jobs with higher fatality rates.
Forbes only looked at the top 40 most populated metropolitan areas. So places like Memphis, TN, and Richmond, VA, weren’t ranked.
