Illinois Is Home To 2 Of The Safest Cities In America

ILLINOIS — A new study by the personal finance website WalletHub ranked America's safest cities, and two cities made the list from Illinois.

The rankings included the 150 most populated cities in the United States, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state.

Here are the Illinois cities that made the list.

Aurora

• Home & Community Safety Rank: 5
• Natural Disaster Risk Rank: 91
• Financial Safety Rank: 148
• Overall ranking: 20

Chicago

• Home & Community Safety Rank: 122
• Natural Disaster Risk Rank: 79
• Financial Safety Rank: 164
• Overall ranking: 130

Columbia, Maryland, ranked as the safest city in America, the researchers found, followed by Yonkers, New York, and Plano, Texas.

The least safe city in the United States? That dubious honor goes to St. Louis, Missouri.

Here are some other highlights from the report.

Irvine, California, took the top spot for the fewest assaults per capita. Dover, Denver, had the lowest natural-disaster risk of any city in the nation during 2019.

WalletHub compared the 182 cities across 41 relevant metrics of safety, including the number of mass shootings, the unemployment rate and the quality of roads.

Each relevant metric was listed with its corresponding weight, and the cities were subsequently graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the safest possible city.

"Besides the types of hazards that can cause bodily injury or other physical harm, taking an unaffordable second mortgage, forgoing health insurance or even visiting unsecured websites are also ways people run into danger," authors of the WalletHub study wrote. "At the top of the list of worries is the availability of affordable health care."

Here are the top 10 safest cities in the nation:

1. Columbia, Maryland: 85.33
2. Yonkers, New York: 84.80
3. Plano, Texas: 83.54
4. Gilbert, Arizona: 83.44
5. South Burlington, Vermont: 83.33
6. Virginia Beach, Virginia: 83.22
7. Bismarck, North Dakota: 82.92
8. Nashua, New Hampshire: 82.84
9. Chandler, Arizona: 82.54
10. Warwick, Rhode Island: 82.17

The full report on city safety is available on WalletHub.