New Study Reveals the Safest Places to Live in St. Louis and Missouri
Where are the safest places to live in St. Louis and Missouri and where are the most dangerous places to live in Missouri?
The answers to these questions were recently published in a detailed study performed by a national real estate company called Movoto. Missouri is known as the “Show Me State” so they decided to show us the numbers and rankings of cities. We will show you homes for sale in these safest places later in this post.
How The Ranking Was Created
According to the article, they looked at the FBI’s crime statistics from 2012, which was the most recent full report. They used locations in Missouri with populations of over 10,000 people.
There were 75 places that met that requirement. From there they looked at each of these places in terms of three criteria:
- Violent crime (rape, murder, and assault)
- Property crime (theft, burglary, and motor vehicle thefts)
- The chance that a resident will be a victim of crime
Each city was ranked with a score ranging from 1 to 75 according to the criteria we just mentioned above, with the lower score being the better. Since all crimes are not created equal, (wouldn’t you rather report the crime of your mailbox being knocked down instead of being assaulted?) the results were weighted so that violent crime accounted for 50 percent of the city’s final score, property crime at 30 percent, and the chance of being the victim of a crime made up 20 percent of the final score. In the end, the city of the lowest score, and therefore the safest on their list was right here in Town and Country. Seven of the top 10 Safest Places in Missouri were located within the greater St. Louis area and we will now highlight these communities and the homes for sale within. If you want to see statistically which city came up as the most dangerous, you will have to scroll down to end of this page. (You will be surprised) 
Homes for Sale in the Safest Places to Live in St. Louis
According to their statistics here are the 10 Safest Places to Live
- Town and Country
- Ballwin
- Chesterfield
- Webster Groves
- O’Fallon
- Creve Coeur
- Manchester
- Maryville
- Raymore
- Nixa
1. Town and Country
There are approximately 10,833 people living in Town and Country and they reported the lowest number of violent crime in Missouri (3)
The number of property crimes was very low (97) making a total of 100 crimes in 2012. The chance of being a victim of crime? One in 108.
Click Here to See Homes for Sale in Town and Country
2. Ballwin
Ballwin has 30,354 residents, yet only saw a total of 234 crimes which means citizens had a one in 130 chance of being a crime victim.
Of the 234 crimes, 216 were property crimes,with the remaining 18 crimes being violent. Ballwin is a city that is repeatedly being mentioned in the media as one of the top places to live.
Ballwin Homes for Sale
3. Chesterfield
Chesterfield has a population of 47,560 residents. The city had a total of just 778 crimes in 2012, 755 were crimes against property and 23 of which were violent. Chesterfield is the 14th largest city in Missouri and is known for a city full of restaurants, shopping, parks, and things to do. People living in Chesterfield had a one in 61 chance of being a victim of crime.
Chesterfield Homes for Sale
4. Webster Groves
Coming in at fourth place in Missouri Webster Groves with a population of 23,032. This popular area in the suburbs of St. Louis only saw 285 total crimes in 2012. Property crimes made up 264 of these crimes,195 reports of larceny/theft, 59 burglaries , and 10 vehicle thefts. There were 21 reports of violent crime and residents had a one in 81 chance of being the victim of a crime.
Webster Groves Homes for Sale
5. O’Fallon
The city of O’Fallon, with a population of 80,670, has received national recognition through the years including Money Magazine’s Best 100 Places to Live Award. People living in O’Fallon have a one in 61 chance of being a crime victim. In 2012 there were a total of 1,320 crimes. 94% (1,236) of these were crimes against property. The remaining 74 were violent crimes. To help you out with a comparison, Jefferson City is half the size of O’Fallon but had 1,847 total crimes in 2012, 261 which were violent.
O’Fallon Homes for Sale
6. Creve Coeur
Creve Coeur, located in the western suburbs of St. Louis with a population of 17,683 citizens also ranked high in the list. Creve Coeur had one of the lowest number of property crimes (270). There were 17 violent crimes reported making the total 287 crimes out of almost 18,000 residents which is a one in 62 chance of being a crime victim. The area has a cozy, community feel.
Creve Coeur Homes for Sale
7. Manchester
Manchester, also located in the western suburbs of St. Louis had one of the lowest violent crime rankings on the entire list. There was only 9 violent crimes reported out of a population of 18,124. This means that someone living in Manchester had a one in 2,014 chance of being the victim of a violent crime! To put this into perspective, Poplar Bluff with a similar population had a total of 138 violent crimes in 2012. Translation? People living in Poplar Bluff had a one in 124 chance of being a victim. Congratulations to Manchester!
Manchester Mo Homes for Sale
The Most Dangerous Places in Missouri
By now you are probably assuming it’s the city of St. Louis. Crime reporting by the national media has always been dubious (“New York Times Publishes Front Page Story About Crime in St. Louis-Were They Fair?“) but the city of St. Louis was not the most dangerous city according to the statistics.
According to the numbers analyzed by Movoto the most dangerous place is … Branson!
My first reaction was “You’ve got to be kidding!” But their numbers show that people living in Branson actually have a 1 in 7 chance of being the victim of a crime!
The 5 most dangerous places at the bottom of the list: Branson, Springfield, St. Louis, Bridgeton, Poplar Bluff. Below is the entire chart with the details.
Click the Image to Enlarge (graphic credited to Movoto)
Relocating to Missouri
If you are considering relocating to Missouri or the St. Louis area call Finding Homes for You at 636-532-4200. We have been helping folks just like you make successful transitions into our area for years. People moving in from out-of-town are sometimes considered to be one of the most vulnerable type of home buyers. Not knowing who to talk to, unfamiliarity with the area and/or market conditions, can cause worry in the hearts of buyers. One of the best ways to protect your interests is to work with an Exclusive Buyer Agent like our company. Exclusive Buyer Agents never list or take listings which (at least according to our buyers) can result in a more objective and non-biased advice free of any conflicts of interest. Take advantage of additional tools for your research in some of the related articles below.
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