Gilbert ranked as safest city in Arizona, sixth safest in country

PHOENIX — Led by the East Valley town of Gilbert, three Phoenix suburbs were ranked among the 15 safest cities in the country for 2018 by a personal finance website.

Gilbert checked in at No. 6 in WalletHub’s rankings, and two nearby cities weren’t far behind.

“Chandler was 12th, Scottsdale was 15th, so overall pretty safe cities located in the state,” Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday.

WalletHub compared more than 180 cities in 39 safety indicators across three dimensions: home and community safety, natural disaster risk and financial safety.

The website analyzed the 150 largest U.S. cities by population, plus at least the two most populated cities in each state.

The other Arizona cities in the rankings were No. 22 Peoria, No. 35 Tempe, No. 40 Mesa, No. 47 Glendale, No. 120 Phoenix and No. 157 Tucson.

“Arizona in general also had a lower natural disaster risk from floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, things like that,” Gonzalez said.

Gilbert, which slipped one spot from No. 5 in the 2017 WalletHub rankings, was second nationally in fewest assaults per capita and did well in a variety of areas.

“Gilbert especially did have pretty high marks when it comes to financial safety, including a very low unemployment rate and a low poverty rate,” Gonzalez said.

Columbia, Maryland, in suburban Baltimore was determined to be the safest city in the country, and St. Louis was at the bottom of the list at No. 182.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Taylor Kinnerup contributed to this report.

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