The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies has released this year’s ranking of the Most Secure Places to Live. This annual list consists of large cities, mid-sized cities, and small towns, all of which are ranked based on specific criteria, and all of which are located in the United States. Did the city or town that you live in make the list?
Farmers Insurance was most recently in the news when they were named as a sponsor of the brand new, yet to be built, NFL stadium that will be located in Los Angeles. The football arena will be known as Farmers Field, a name that has been snickered at by lots of folks on Twitter when it was first announced. Los Angeles, in case you were wondering, did not make the list of the Most Secure Places to Live.
In order to create this list, Farmers Insurance took many different factors into consideration. All of the factors had something to do with potential risks that people who live in each location would face. They looked at things like crime statistics, terrorist threats, environmental hazards, and the risk of experiencing a natural disaster. Economic aspects of risk were also considered, specifically in the form of housing depreciation, and job loss numbers. Other factors included air quality, and life expectancy.
Farmers Insurance also split the locations that they looked at into three groups: Large Metro Areas (that had 500,000 or more residents), Mid-Size Cities (that had between 150,000 to 500,000 residents), and Small Towns (that had fewer than 150,000 residents). They identified the 20 Most Secure Places to Live for each category.
In the category for metro areas that had more than 500,000 people, the top ranked city was Madison, Wisconsin. Madison is the state capital of Wisconsin, and is home to the University of Wisconsin- Madison. It tops the list thanks to it’s low unemployment rate, low violent crime rate, and the long life expectancy of it’s residents. Number two was DesMoines -West Des Moines, Iowa. This was followed by Syracuse, New York, Austin-Round Rock Texas, and Portland- South Portland- Biddeford, Maine.
Olympia, Washington, was ranked number one Most Secure Place to Live in the category for Mid-Size Cities. This is the state capital of Washington. It is a major cultural center for the Puget Sound region. Olympia placed first in it’s category because of increased job growth, high air quality, and also for the low risk that those who live there have for experiencing severe weather. Number two in this category was Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Bellingham, Washington, Kennewick- Richland- Pasco, Washington, and Fargo, North Dakota round out the top five in this category.
Lewiston, Idaho – Clarkston, Washington top the list of Most Secure Places to Live in the Small Town category. It was ranked the highest because of it’s excellent job growth, low crime rate, and because it has a minimum of housing depreciation. The rest of the top five for this category include State College, Pennsylvania, Ithaca, New York, Bismark, North Dakota, and Logan, Utah.
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