
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.
1. LOUISVILLE

2. ERIE

3. JOHNSTOWN

4. WINDSOR

5. FIRESTONE

Colorado's Safest Cities
Rank | City | Population | Violent crime | Property crime | Violent per 1,000 | Property per 1,000 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Louisville | 20,814 | 21 | 73 | 1.01 | 3.51 |
2 | Erie | 22,115 | 12 | 135 | 0.54 | 6.10 |
3 | Johnstown | 16,143 | 13 | 114 | 0.81 | 7.06 |
4 | Windsor | 22,404 | 3 | 239 | 0.13 | 10.67 |
5 | Firestone | 12,375 | 6 | 126 | 0.48 | 10.18 |
6 | Parker | 50,409 | 46 | 592 | 0.91 | 11.74 |
7 | Fruita | 12,825 | 16 | 184 | 1.25 | 14.35 |
8 | Castle Rock | 57,109 | 51 | 882 | 0.89 | 15.44 |
9 | Evans | 21,975 | 70 | 409 | 3.19 | 18.61 |
10 | Broomfield | 66,953 | 36 | 1,610 | 0.54 | 24.05 |
11 | Golden | 20,616 | 31 | 480 | 1.50 | 23.28 |
12 | Lafayette | 28,421 | 87 | 638 | 3.06 | 22.45 |
13 | Steamboat Springs | 12,512 | 31 | 299 | 2.48 | 23.90 |
14 | Fort Collins | 164,670 | 342 | 4,036 | 2.08 | 24.51 |
15 | Littleton | 47,288 | 48 | 1,296 | 1.02 | 27.41 |
16 | Longmont | 93,268 | 292 | 2,300 | 3.13 | 24.66 |
17 | Loveland | 76,936 | 184 | 1,987 | 2.39 | 25.83 |
18 | Fountain | 28,115 | 98 | 729 | 3.49 | 25.93 |
19 | Fort Morgan | 11,313 | 36 | 303 | 3.18 | 26.78 |
20 | Boulder | 109,189 | 258 | 3,275 | 2.36 | 29.99 |
21 | Thornton | 136,451 | 477 | 4,309 | 3.50 | 31.58 |
22 | Commerce City | 55,341 | 241 | 1,767 | 4.35 | 31.93 |
23 | Westminster | 114,514 | 269 | 4,004 | 2.35 | 34.97 |
24 | Aurora | 366,477 | 1,939 | 11,213 | 5.29 | 30.60 |
25 | Greeley | 102,491 | 468 | 3,275 | 4.57 | 31.95 |
26 | Northglenn | 39,890 | 139 | 1,353 | 3.48 | 33.92 |
27 | Sterling | 14,087 | 47 | 495 | 3.34 | 35.14 |
28 | Brighton | 38,363 | 143 | 1,328 | 3.73 | 34.62 |
29 | Greenwood Village | 16,024 | 34 | 614 | 2.12 | 38.32 |
30 | Durango | 18,248 | 43 | 718 | 2.36 | 39.35 |
31 | Colorado Springs | 464,113 | 2,301 | 16,526 | 4.96 | 35.61 |
32 | Denver | 699,259 | 4,597 | 25,101 | 6.57 | 35.90 |
33 | Montrose | 19,054 | 29 | 835 | 1.52 | 43.82 |
34 | Wheat Ridge | 31,389 | 110 | 1,490 | 3.50 | 47.47 |
35 | Grand Junction | 60,628 | 314 | 3,060 | 5.18 | 50.47 |
METHODOLOGY
To identify the safest cities in Colorado, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics along with our own population data and internal research. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removed cities with populations under 10,000.
The remaining cities were ranked based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) per 1,000 people. These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes assigned a value 1.5 times (due to their severity) that of property crimes.