Rockland County 3rd Among 25 Safest Communities In America: U.S. News

ROCKLAND COUNTY — Rockland is one of the safest communities in the country, U.S. News & World Report said in a recent report measuring the overall health of more than 3,000 U.S. counties.

“Coming in as the third-safest county nationwide is a remarkable achievement, one that we should all be proud of," Rockland County Executive Ed Day told Patch. "The list scored counties on a 100-point scale that’s tied to their performance in key safety areas that went beyond crime rates, including health care and public safety capacity. While I may be the Chief Executive Officer of our county, I need to thank my brothers and sisters in blue as the credit is all theirs."

Safety rankings in the sixth annual 2024 Healthiest Communities ranking take into consideration metrics across three key areas — crime, injuries and public safety capacity — and include individual metrics such as gun violence, violent and property crime rates, access emergency rooms, spending on health and emergency services, and vehicle crash fatality rates.

The safety rankings are based on a 100-point scale.

3. Rockland County

• Population: 337,326
• Community Type: Urban, high-performing economy
• Public Safety Score: 93.86
• Performs Best In: Per capita spending on health and emergency services
• Overall Score: 68.62
• Overall Rank: 289

Rockland also received strong scores on overall population health and local economy. See the U.S. News report on Rockland here.

This year, 20 of the 25 jurisdictions that scored the highest for public safety also landed among the country’s top 500 Healthiest Communities, with nine in the top 50 overall rankings.

States in the northeastern U.S. had 10 communities among the top 25 safest communities – the most of any region – with eight of those counties located in New York.

The 25 safest communities are:

1. Nassau County, New York
2. Alexandria, Virginia
3. Rockland County, New York
4. Rio Blanco County, Colorado
5. Arlington County, Virginia
6. Westchester County, New York
7. Manassas Park, Virginia
8. Putnam County, New York
9. Bergen County, New Jersey
10. Brown County, Minnesota
11. San Mateo County, California
12. Fairfax, Virginia
13. Poquoson, Virginia
14. Shelby County, Iowa
15. Eagle County, Colorado
16. Jim Hogg County, Texas
17. Richmond County, New York
18. Los Alamos County, New Mexico
19. Prince William County, Virginia
20. Queens County, New York
21. Colfax County, Nebraska
22. Suffolk County, New York
23. Morris County, New Jersey
24. Loudoun County, Virginia
25. Kings County, New York