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Can’t decide where to put down roots? If you’re looking for a safe spot to avoid natural disasters, identity theft or burglary, you might want to buy a home in Columbia, Maryland. The city was just named the country’s safest place in America.
Top spots for safety
According to the 2018 Safest Cities in America list from WalletHub, which compared 180 cities on metrics like assaults, thefts, natural disasters, pedestrian fatalities and more, Columbia, Maryland, is the safest spot to call home. The city ranks high for home, community, and financial safety.
Not far behind are South Burlington, Vermont, and Plano, Texas. South Burlington has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, while Plano claims the No. 1 spot for home and community safety.
Also in the top 10 are Virginia Beach, Virginia; Warwick, Rhode Island; Gilbert, Arizona; Yonkers, New York; Bismarck, North Dakota; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Boise, Idaho.
The least safe cities to call home
The worst place to put down roots? That’s apparently St. Louis, Missouri, which ranks low in home, community, financial and natural disaster safety. It also has the most traffic fatalities and assaults per capita.
The bottom five also includes Fort Lauderdale, Florida; San Bernardino, California; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Little Rock Arkansas.
Detroit has the highest unemployment rate, while Brownsville, Texas, has the largest percentage of uninsured residents. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, claims the highest natural disaster risk, followed by Wichita, Kansas, and Garden Grove, California.
According to Jennifer L Schneider of the Rochester Institute of Technology, while avoiding natural disasters in these cities — or anywhere for that matter — isn’t 100-percent possible, being proactive can help lessen their impact.
“We certainly cannot know every possible disaster, nor can we plan for and do everything, we do not have those kinds of resources,” she said. “We should be proactive and mitigate risk where we can, and build resiliency into our localities.”
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