SmartAsset’s recent study ranks Houston as the least safe major city in the country behind Memphis, Tennessee.
Building on its “America’s Safest Midsize Cities” report, financial tech firm SmartAsset evaluated 83 large U.S. cities—each with over 250,000 residents—to find the safest in the country. The study assessed over 90% of major U.S. municipalities, ranking them based on a combined score of violent crime, property crime, traffic fatalities, and natural disaster vulnerability.
Overall, Texas saw mixed results. Of the 12 Texas cities analyzed, it was the only state to land at both extremes of the spectrum. Plano (No. 2) and Laredo (No. 6) ranked among the top 10 safest cities nationwide. On the other hand, Houston ranked as the second-least safe major city in the U.S.
Houston was ranked as such due to poor scores across all four of the metrics evaluated. Per the study, the city struggles with high crime rates, reporting 11.5 violent crimes and 42.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents, alongside a high rate of 11.6 auto fatalities per 100,000 residents.
Compounding these everyday safety concerns is a “Very High” natural disaster risk rating from FEMA, which factors in expected disaster losses, community resilience, and social vulnerability. Together, these dropped Houston to the very bottom of the 83-city ranking, faring better than only Memphis, Tennessee.
The top 10 least safe major cities in the country per SmartAsset are as such:
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Houston, Texas
- St. Louis, Missouri
- San Francisco, California
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Oakland, California
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Detroit, Michigan
Per SmartAsset, here are the safest major cities in the United States:
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Plano, Texas
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Chesapeake, Virginia
- Laredo, Texas
- Lexington, Kentucky
- Boston, Massachusetts
- LIncoln, Nebraska
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
For more information, see the full study here.
