Home to the gorgeous southern stretch of the Rocky Mountains and legal recreational marijuana, Colorado places around the middle among states in both violent crime and property crime. It is neither among the safest nor the most dangerous U.S. states, although Denver’s large population and high rate of violent crime raises the average in comparison to Colorado’s smaller communities, which as a whole, are quite safe.

Louisville ranks as the safest city in Colorado. A residential community just north of Denver, Louisville consistently places in lists of the nation’s best places to live. With just 21 violent crimes and 73 property crimes (accounting for a very low rate of 3.5 property crimes per 1,000) reported, it’s not difficult to see why.

The rest of the top five -- Erie, Johnston, Windsor and Firestone—are all similarly sized communities of 12,000 to 22,000 located in or near Larimer or Weld Counties. Each is just a stone’s throw from Denver and Boulder and posts a violent crime rate of less than 1 reported incident per 1,000 inhabitants. When people are having fun skiing and/or smoking weed there’s just no time left to commit crimes.