Missouri does not have one of the best safety records in the U.S.: its violent and property crime rates are both above national levels, propped up by some of the more crime-ridden urban areas in the state.
However, there is good news for residents of the Show-Me state: violent crime in the state is declining faster than it is nationwide, with a 5.2% decrease between 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, property crime is steadily declining, as well.
The crime situation in Missouri’s 5 safest cities paints a very different picture than the state, at large, as each of them earned a violent crime rate near-or-below 1 offense per 1,000 residents in 2018, which is 20% or less of the statewide rate.
Webster Groves is Missouri’s safest city. The wealthy, medium-sized St. Louis suburb logged a crime rate just above 1 per 1,000 in 2018, while its property crime rate is just one-third of the national rate.
Missouri’s 2nd safest city is Ballwin, a St. Louis suburb repeatedly named “One of America’s Best Places to Live” by Money Magazine. On paper, Ballwin’s crime rates may be the most impressive in the state, as it’s 0.30 per 1,000 crime rate is less than a third of #1 Webster Grove’s already-low rate. The city’s slightly higher property crime rate keeps it out of the top spot.
#3 Town and Country’s violent crime rate is even lower than Ballwin’s: the suburb of 11,000 recorded just 2 violent crimes in 2018. However, the city’s marginally higher rate of property crime drops it to the 3rd position.
Eureka, the 4th entry in the ranking, recorded crime rates only slightly less impressive than the three preceding entries. The city, which is home to the Six Flags St. Louis amusement park, has a violent crime rate just above 1 per 1,000.
Missouri’s 5th safest city, Kirkwood, is also the 5th consecutive St. Louis suburb on the list. The city’s low rates of violent and property crime are nearly identical to those of #4 Eureka’s.
Missouri’s Safest Cities
MO City Population Violent
crimeProperty
crimeLaw enforcement
employeesTotal crimes Crime rate per 1,000 Violent crimes per 1,000 Property crimes per 1,000 Law enforcement per 1,000
1 Webster Groves 22873 25 164 49 189 8.26 1.09 7.17 2.14
2 Ballwin 30151 9 245 60 254 8.42 0.30 8.13 1.99
3 Town and Country 11154 2 132 30 134 12.01 0.18 11.83 2.69
4 Eureka 10626 11 130 28 141 13.27 1.04 12.23 2.64
5 Kirkwood 27670 30 381 79 411 14.85 1.08 13.77 2.86
6 Jackson 15101 19 179 33 198 13.11 1.26 11.85 2.19
7 Wentzville 41057 106 427 87 533 12.98 2.58 10.40 2.12
8 O’Fallon 88763 145 952 154 1097 12.36 1.63 10.73 1.73
9 Clayton 16935 25 265 56 290 17.12 1.48 15.65 3.31
10 Nixa 21653 26 249 38 275 12.70 1.20 11.50 1.75
11 Creve Coeur 18831 22 289 50 311 16.52 1.17 15.35 2.66
12 Lake St. Louis 16134 12 248 40 260 16.12 0.74 15.37 2.48
13 St. Ann 12698 36 275 73 311 24.49 2.84 21.66 5.75
14 Maryville 11716 7 169 24 176 15.02 0.60 14.42 2.05
15 Chesterfield 47602 22 732 108 754 15.84 0.46 15.38 2.27
16 Manchester 18114 16 267 37 283 15.62 0.88 14.74 2.04
17 Grain Valley 14165 25 201 28 226 15.95 1.76 14.19 1.98
18 Kearney 10300 6 149 17 155 15.05 0.58 14.47 1.65
19 Smithville 10012 10 153 19 163 16.28 1.00 15.28 1.90
20 Festus 12092 56 202 36 258 21.34 4.63 16.71 2.98
21 Liberty 31842 93 511 56 604 18.97 2.92 16.05 1.76
22 Maryland Heights 26930 93 692 96 785 29.15 3.45 25.70 3.56
23 Florissant 51326 115 1079 112 1194 23.26 2.24 21.02 2.18
24 Troy 12226 26 244 24 270 22.08 2.13 19.96 1.96
25 Lee’s Summit 98144 118 2105 201 2223 22.65 1.20 21.45 2.05
26 St. Peters 57838 106 1248 121 1354 23.41 1.83 21.58 2.09
27 Raymore 21452 9 474 39 483 22.52 0.42 22.10 1.82
28 Moberly 13750 120 253 36 373 27.13 8.73 18.40 2.62
29 Mexico 11507 14 289 28 303 26.33 1.22 25.12 2.43
30 St. Charles 70925 147 1610 149 1757 24.77 2.07 22.70 2.10
31 Republic 16495 43 311 25 354 21.46 2.61 18.85 1.52
32 Marshall 12655 29 300 27 329 26.00 2.29 23.71 2.13
33 Webb City 11379 10 309 27 319 28.03 0.88 27.16 2.37
34 Ozark 20203 41 436 34 477 23.61 2.03 21.58 1.68
35 Harrisonville 10113 36 298 31 334 33.03 3.56 29.47 3.07
36 Hazelwood 25234 99 734 77 833 33.01 3.92 29.09 3.05
37 Gladstone 27382 116 660 61 776 28.34 4.24 24.10 2.23
38 Excelsior Springs 11626 22 351 33 373 32.08 1.89 30.19 2.84
39 Jefferson City 42856 151 1277 126 1428 33.32 3.52 29.80 2.94
40 Blue Springs 55277 134 1599 141 1733 31.35 2.42 28.93 2.55
41 Sikeston 16129 97 644 80 741 45.94 6.01 39.93 4.96
42 Arnold 21151 22 767 59 789 37.30 1.04 36.26 2.79
43 University City 34438 108 1147 88 1255 36.44 3.14 33.31 2.56
44 Rolla 20385 121 683 56 804 39.44 5.94 33.51 2.75
45 Kirksville 17539 44 507 29 551 31.42 2.51 28.91 1.65
46 Farmington 18740 29 621 36 650 34.69 1.55 33.14 1.92
47 Fulton 12856 29 500 34 529 41.15 2.26 38.89 2.64
48 Columbia 123586 446 3483 195 3929 31.79 3.61 28.18 1.58
49 Cape Girardeau 39303 192 1537 114 1729 43.99 4.89 39.11 2.90
50 Washington 13964 34 526 32 560 40.10 2.43 37.67 2.29
51 Grandview 25256 173 924 67 1097 43.44 6.85 36.59 2.65
52 Warrensburg 20355 78 692 41 770 37.83 3.83 34.00 2.01
53 Bolivar 10966 30 443 27 473 43.13 2.74 40.40 2.46
54 Bridgeton 11663 68 680 63 748 64.13 5.83 58.30 5.40
55 Vinita Park 11003 144 592 64 736 66.89 13.09 53.80 5.82
56 Neosho 12057 29 526 29 555 46.03 2.41 43.63 2.41
57 Bellefontaine Neighbors 10597 100 462 32 562 53.03 9.44 43.60 3.02
58 Kansas City 493115 7842 21236 1819 29078 58.97 15.90 43.07 3.69
59 Sedalia 21590 183 944 57 1127 52.20 8.48 43.72 2.64
60 West Plains 12277 44 585 31 629 51.23 3.58 47.65 2.53
61 Lebanon 14622 57 731 40 788 53.89 3.90 49.99 2.74
62 Union 11710 52 533 27 585 49.96 4.44 45.52 2.31
63 St. Louis 306875 5525 18142 1608 23667 77.12 18.00 59.12 5.24
64 Hannibal 17545 102 896 50 998 56.88 5.81 51.07 2.85
65 Ferguson 20663 129 946 48 1075 52.03 6.24 45.78 2.32
66 St. Joseph 76409 374 3768 173 4142 54.21 4.89 49.31 2.26
67 Independence 117368 521 6115 285 6636 56.54 4.44 52.10 2.43
68 Poplar Bluff 17074 85 1163 60 1248 73.09 4.98 68.12 3.51
69 Raytown 29173 153 1295 46 1448 49.63 5.24 44.39 1.58
70 Kennett 10326 50 654 29 704 68.18 4.84 63.34 2.81
71 Branson 11589 85 1224 65 1309 112.95 7.33 105.62 5.61
72 Springfield 168537 2218 11830 409 14048 83.35 13.16 70.19 2.43
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.
