Safest Cities in Connecticut – 2021

Last Updated on December 27, 2020

Crime–particularly violent crime–is low in Connecticut: the state’s violent crime rate of 2.07 offenses per 1,000 people is just 56% of the nationwide rate. It should serve as no surprise, then, that crime rates in the Nutmeg State’s safest cities are among the lowest in the United States.

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Crime rate per 1,000
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Law enforcement per 1,000

Connecticut’s safest community is Ridgefield, a Fairfield County town of 25K located at the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. Ridgefield logged just a single violent crime in 2018, and had a property crime rate of 2.53 per 1,000. With such low crime, it’s fair to say that Ridgefield is one of the safest places in America.

#2 Ledyard is not far behind. The town, home of Foxwoods Resort Casino, logged a violent crime rate of 0.54 per 1,000 in 2018.

The 3rd safest community in Connecticut is Old Saybrook, a town just over 10,000 in Middlesex County. Old Saybrook’s crime figures are very similar to those of the preceding entry on the list, though the city had slightly lower violent crime and slightly higher property crime than Ledyard.

Connecticut’s #4 spot belongs to New Canaan, a wealthy town which at one point had the highest median family income in the nation. In 2018, New Canaan earned the state’s lowest violent crime rate (an honor it shares with Madison) due to the fact that no violent crimes were reported in the town during the year.

Newtown, another mid-sized Fairfield County town, earns the 5th position on the list. The town’s crime rates are, in many cases, more impressive than those of preceding entries, but Newton drops a couple of positions solely due to its low ratio of law enforcement-to-residents.

Connecticut’s Safest Cities

CTCityPopulationViolent
crime
Property
crime
Law enforcement
employees
Total crimesCrime rate per 1,000Violent crimes per 1,000Property crimes per 1,000Law enforcement per 1,000
1Ridgefield2526016446652.570.042.531.82
2Ledyard1480885230604.050.543.512.03
3Old Saybrook1011754829535.240.494.742.87
4New Canaan204610101501014.940.004.942.44
5Newtown280156122481284.570.214.351.71
6Monroe1965310105551155.850.515.342.80
7Greenwich6307563961784026.370.106.282.82
8Suffield1568827724795.040.134.911.53
9East Lyme1874488828965.120.434.691.49
10Madison181840111381116.100.006.102.09
11Simsbury251645150451556.160.205.961.79
12Bethel199744144461487.410.207.212.30
13Canton1029817020716.890.106.801.94
14Granby1136737921827.210.266.951.85
15Plainfield15049227421966.381.464.921.40
16Stonington1860213164501779.520.708.822.69
17Brookfield172305158441639.460.299.172.55
18Cheshire293375244582498.490.178.321.98
19Shelton4165723286603097.420.556.871.44
20Coventry124381090211008.040.807.241.69
21East Hampton12893118718987.600.856.751.40
22Seymour1658910153391639.830.609.222.35
23Avon1837941864119010.340.2210.122.23
24Darien2205042596126311.930.1811.752.77
25New Milford26956202635728310.500.749.762.11
26North Branford1417991462915510.930.6310.302.05
27Middletown463143658412762013.390.7812.612.74
28Plymouth11646111513116213.910.9412.972.66
29Rocky Hill2016362655027113.440.3013.142.48
30Groton Town29372373837942014.301.2613.042.69
31Berlin20593152815429614.370.7313.652.62
32Vernon29304213676138813.240.7212.522.08
33Glastonbury34593204567647613.760.5813.182.20
34Wallingford44680305979362714.030.6713.362.08
35Norwich393181084989660615.412.7512.672.44
36South Windsor25968143585437214.330.5413.792.08
37Guilford22268113204633114.860.4914.372.07
38Enfield445745568710674216.651.2315.412.38
39Waterford18937113295034017.950.5817.372.64
40Bristol6018462970144103217.151.0316.122.39
41Torrington34286465648761017.791.3416.452.54
42Danbury858181331163150129615.101.5513.551.75
43Naugatuck31400265026852816.820.8315.992.17
44Branford28121174766649317.530.6016.932.35
45Norwalk894422521347213159917.882.8215.062.38
46Stamford1320072182120304233817.711.6516.062.30
47Cromwell1395072513525818.490.5017.992.51
48Fairfield624523495511198915.840.5415.291.78
49Southington43960327348776617.420.7316.701.98
50Milford54754371119126115621.110.6820.442.30
51North Haven23703135246053722.660.5522.112.53
52Farmington25602145556256922.220.5521.682.42
53New London269951225688569025.564.5221.043.15
54Ansonia18751254425546724.911.3323.572.93
55Stratford52472531080114113321.591.0120.582.17
56Manchester578841011275151137623.771.7422.032.61
57Bridgeport1468199452833445377825.736.4419.303.03
58Clinton1291723233632525.160.1525.012.79
59East Haven28805215935761421.320.7320.591.98
60Hamden612342051168133137322.423.3519.072.17
61East Hartford501841171206150132326.362.3324.032.99
62Derby12535382913632926.253.0323.212.87
63West Haven547381051175117128023.381.9221.472.14
64Trumbull36167468508589624.771.2723.502.35
65Meriden597922151216131143123.933.6020.342.19
66Watertown21631214914651223.670.9722.702.13
67Orange1400274655547233.710.5033.213.93
68Bloomfield21541605736163329.392.7926.602.83
69Newington30382217806680126.360.6925.672.17
70East Windsor11425173623737933.171.4931.683.24
71Plainville17701345094754330.681.9228.762.66
72West Hartford63085451742142178728.330.7127.612.25
73New Britain726303102014169232432.004.2727.732.33
74Hartford12311713134435425574846.6910.6636.023.45
75New Haven13118111055111460621647.388.4238.963.51
76Waterbury1083784814252315473343.674.4439.232.91

Methodology

To identify the safest cities, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and cities with populations under 10,000. This left 3,381 cities (out of a total of 9,251). 

There are two broad classifications of crimes: violent crimes and non-violent crimes. According to the FBI, “Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force. Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. ”

We computed the total number of crimes reported by each city by adding violent crimes and property crimes. We then created a crime rate as the number of crimes per 1,000 population. Then we transformed the total crime rate variable so that the skewness was reduced and normalized.

Data from 2,831 law enforcement agencies was then collected to determine police adequacy (TotalCrimes / Number of police employees).  We consider that the smaller the police adequacy statistic is, the safer the city is. This variable was also transformed and normalized.

Finally, the two variables were combined to create a safety score for each city.