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South Florida has a lot going for it. Historically, for all of the good, there has been a bit of a tradeoff. Crime. With high population density and ease of access to even our smallest communities from our largest ones, combating crime has been a challenge.
A decade ago, Florida ranked in the low 30s in crime rate. However, we’ve been trending in the right direction for 13 consecutive years according to the state’s annual Uniform Crime Report. All of that progress has led to Florida clawing up to 25th in the overall crime rate. That’s also leading to many of our communities popping up as being among the safest in the country.
MoneyGeek just wrapped up an analysis of the “Safest Small Cities and Towns In America” which measured crime through the rate of property and violent crime and the cost of crime per capita. Florida doesn’t have a community in the top ten, however, sitting just outside at number 12 is Parkland.
The next Florida city doesn’t appear until number 129, where Cooper City is shown to be the second safest city in Florida. As for the rest of the top ten safest cities in Florida, they include Miami Lakes, Doral, Coconut Creek, Dunedin, Weston, Margate, Winter Springs, and St. Cloud.
Notably, the top five safest small cities in Florida are all in Southeast Florida. In total, there were 952 small cities across the US that were measured for the study. There is one South Florida city that’s nearly the least safe in the country. Checking in at number 945 is Rivera Beach.