Four out of the top five safest cities in America are in Texas, according to a new report from SmartAsset. Frisco, McKinney and McAllen are the top three safest cities in the country, while Plano ranks at No. 5, according to the finance site’s “Safest Cities in America – 2023 Edition” report.
SmartAsset’s ranking is based on the rates of violent crime, property crime, vehicular mortality, drug poisoning mortality and percentage of the population engaging in excessive drinking throughout 2022. They compiled this information using data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Database and the 2022 County Health Rankings.
Frisco, the highest-ranked city on the list for the second year in a row, has the fourth-lowest violent crime rate of any city in the U.S. and the lowest in the Lone Star State at 95 crimes per every 100,000 residents. The city also posted similarly positive scores for property crime and drug overdose death rates.
The Gulf Coast city of Brownsville (No. 43 overall) ranked as the U.S. city with the lowest drug poisoning mortality rate at only 4.9 deaths per 100,000 residents. In fact, 8 of the top 10 cities with the lowest rates of drug poisoning deaths in 2022 were in Texas: Brownsville, McAllen, Denton, Frisco, McKinney and Plano all had drug use mortality rates under 0.01% of the population.
McKinney was the Texas city with the lowest rate of property crime.
On the flip side, Amarillo was identified as the city with the highest rate of deaths due to traffic accidents, which occur at a rate of 22.9 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Here’s the full list of Texas cities that made the top 200:
- Frisco (No. 1)
- McKinney (No. 2)
- McAllen (No. 3)
- Plano (No. 5)
- Laredo (No. 7
- El Paso (No. 12)
- Denton (No. 26)
- Grand Prairie (No. 42)
- Brownsville (No. 43)
- Arlington (No. 51)
- Fort Worth (No. 52)
- Garland (No. 62)
- Irving (No. 68)
- Killeen (No. 90)
- Pasadena (No. 97)
- Austin (No. 110)
- Mesquite (No. 111)
- San Antonio (No. 113)
- Waco (No. 127)
- Dallas (No. 130)
- Lubbock (No. 151)
- Houston (No. 157)
- Amarillo (No. 161)
- Corpus Christi (No. 175)