How Safe Is Chicago? Study Ranks 2020 Safest Cities In The U.S.

Safety is a huge draw when planting roots in a city.

But a recent study shows that Chicago has room for improvement.

WalletHub, a personal finance site, released a study Monday (November 30) ranking the safest cities in the U.S.

The study compared 182 cities, weighing 42 “key indicators for safety,” to determine where residents feel safest.

Chicago made the list at No. 145.

The city was also one with the most law-enforcement employees per capita, according to WalletHub. It also had one of the highest unemployment rates.

The only other Illinois city to make the list was Aurora, which earned a better ranking than Chicago. Aurora rang in at No. 62.

Here are the top 5 safest cities in the U.S.:

1. Columbia, MD
2. South Burlington, VT
3. Plano, TX
4. Nashua, NH
5. Lewiston, ME

To determine the list, WalletHub compared 180 cities across three key dimensions: home and community safety, natural-disaster risk, and financial safety.

Those three dimensions were then evaluated using 42 relevant metrics, including average number of COVID-19 cases within the last seven days, number of mass shootings, share of sheltered homeless, earthquake risk level, tornado risk level, foreclosure rate, job security, and share of households with emergency savings.

See the full list here.

Photo: Getty Images