Safest Cities in Georgia – 2021

Last Updated on December 27, 2020

Georgia is in the middle-of-the-pack in terms of crime compared to the rest of the U.S.: the state’s violent crime rate of 3.26 per 1,000 is around 12% lower than the national rate, though its property crime rate of 25.74 per 1,000 is 17% above national levels. While Georgia’s statewide crime rates are a mixed bag, the Peach State’s 5 safest cities earned remarkably low crime rates in 2018. Let’s take a closer look.

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

Braselton is the safest community in Georgia by a wide margin. The small town, which straddles 4 different counties, recorded just 1 violent crime in 2018, and its property crime rate was nearly 5 times lower than the Georgia statewide rate.

#2 Holly Springs logged 2018 crime rates nearly as remarkable as those of #1 Braselton’s, including a 0.24 per 1,000 violent crime rate and a property crime rate below 10 per 1,000. It’s not hard to see why the small city has earned numerous awards and honors in the past decade.

Georgia’s 3rd safest city, Johns Creek, is a great degree larger than the preceding entries on the list, with a population over 85K. However, that didn’t stop the city from recording terrific crime rates more characteristic of a small town, including a violent crime rate just over 10% of the national rate. 

Ranking 4th is Milton, a wealthy city of nearly 40K in Fulton County with low levels of crime on par with prior entries on the list. Few cities in the country accomplish the feat of posting a violent crime rate less than 10% of the national rate, along with a property crime rate below 8 per 1,000, yet Milton did both in 2018.

Another small town fills out the list of Georgia’s safest communities. Jefferson, a historic town founded in 1800, earns the #5 spot thanks to a violent crime rate of about 1 offense per 1,000 and a property crime rate of about half of Georgia statewide levels.

Georgia’s Safest Cities

GACityPopulationViolent
crime
Property
crime
Law enforcement
employees
Total crimesCrime rate per 1,000Violent crimes per 1,000Property crimes per 1,000Law enforcement per 1,000
1Braselton1153716520665.720.095.631.73
2Holly Springs1236931233312610.190.249.942.67
3Johns Creek8544634532845666.620.406.230.98
4Milton3984811288432997.500.287.231.08
5Jefferson11394121512616314.311.0513.252.28
6Kennesaw34907574287348513.891.6312.262.09
7Grovetown14543141862720013.750.9612.791.86
8Peachtree City35374184666348413.680.5113.171.78
9Duluth29882205377655718.640.6717.972.54
10Roswell956771261500175162616.991.3215.681.83
11Alpharetta67051421204139124618.580.6317.962.07
12Acworth23028245036352722.891.0421.842.74
13Powder Springs15214332853231820.902.1718.732.10
14Fayetteville18042294675549627.491.6125.883.05
15Dallas13496373033434025.192.7422.452.52
16Decatur24491415765861725.191.6723.522.37
17Sandy Springs1086541282015157214319.721.1818.551.44
18Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan2422659825960687694228.654.0524.602.84
19Smyrna574981171459136157627.412.0325.372.37
20Suwanee20227295234755227.291.4325.862.32
21Canton28685346685370224.471.1923.291.85
22Statesboro318191108458495530.013.4626.562.64
23Dalton338319398797108031.922.7529.172.87
24McDonough25151376625369927.791.4726.322.11
25Loganville12308163202533627.301.3026.002.03
26Newnan39830182105296123430.984.5726.412.41
27Pooler24656247585978231.720.9730.742.39
28Marietta616752141948180216235.053.4731.582.92
29Lilburn12847474073745435.343.6631.682.88
30Norcross17089815695765038.044.7433.303.34
31Gainesville413681581280109143834.763.8230.942.63
32Rincon10039133142132732.571.2931.282.09
33Villa Rica15536575834964041.193.6737.533.15
34Bainbridge12033914564654745.467.5637.903.82
35Covington14178516666671750.573.6046.974.66
36Milledgeville18620667646283044.583.5441.033.33
37Hinesville33163147120191134840.654.4336.222.74
38Brookhaven54138187145677164330.353.4526.891.42
39Snellville19947647955685943.063.2139.862.81
40Thomasville18507338606489348.251.7846.473.46
41LaGrange306111301408106153850.244.2546.003.46
42Forest Park2002413496282109654.736.6948.044.10
43Atlanta49610638142309119872690554.237.6946.544.01
44Dublin157561277747090157.188.0649.124.44
45Carrollton27189160112281128247.155.8841.272.98
46Fairburn15904526604271244.773.2741.502.64
47Monroe13573896295071852.906.5646.343.68
48Doraville10625536375969064.944.9959.955.55
49College Park150341561035116119179.2210.3868.847.72
50Clarkston12957634152147836.894.8632.031.62
51Vidalia10488654933555853.206.2047.013.34
52Waycross13771717705984161.075.1655.914.28
53Griffin22707261108080134159.0611.4947.563.52
54Brunswick1643117586262103763.1110.6552.463.77
55Douglasville340761931841111203459.695.6654.033.26
56Cordele10669645613162558.586.0052.582.91
57Dunwoody5009579203273211142.141.5840.561.46
58Moultrie14136737073278055.185.1650.012.26
59Albany725948093704183451362.1711.1451.022.52
60Americus1518413092145105169.228.5660.662.96
61Warner Robins756684444200148464461.375.8755.511.96
62East Point3548644142601144701132.4712.43120.053.21

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.