According to the personal-finance website WalletHub, just 38 percent of Americans believe they are “very confident” they can protect themselves from COVID-19 when they go out in public. Given this statistic, WalletHub released its report “2021's Safest Cities in America,” identifying those locations.
To determine where Americans can feel most protected against life’s hazards, including nonphysical forms of danger, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 44 key metrics.
The data set ranges from COVID-19 deaths in the past week per capita and assaults per capita to the unemployment rate and road quality, the site also revealed.
The top 10 safest cities in America were Columbia, Md., South Burlington, Vt., Nashua, N.H., Yonkers, N.Y., Madison, Wisc., Portland, Maine, Warwick, R.I., Raleigh, N.C., Burlington, Vt. And Winston-Salem, N.C.
Conversely, the least-safest cities in America were Lubbock, Texas, St. Petersburg, Fla., Anchorage, Alaska, Birmingham, Ala., Baton Rouge, La., Memphis, Tenn., Oklahoma City, Okla., San Bernardino, Calif., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and St. Louis, Mo.
Some safest versus unsafe factors included:
- Irvine, Calif., had the fewest aggravated assault incidents (per 100,000 residents), 22.22, which is 86.3 times fewer than in Memphis, Tenn., the city with the most at 1,917.08.
- Port St. Lucie, Fla. had the fewest thefts (per 1,000 residents), 8.26, which is 9.2 times fewer than in Salt Lake City, Utah, the city with the most at 75.93.
- Washington has the most law-enforcement employees (per 100,000 residents), 627, which is 5.9 times more than in Irvine, Calif., the city with the fewest at 107.
- Laredo, Texas, has among the fewest pedestrian fatalities (per 100,000 residents), 0.38, which is 28.8 times fewer than in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the city with the most at 10.96.