Cary Ranks as Second-Safest North Carolina Town

Cary, NC – FBI reports over the recent years have shown that Cary is one of the safest places to live in the country and especially North Carolina when considering population size. A new study echoes this as Cary ranks as the second-safest town in North Carolina and one of the safest nationwide when taking population into account.

Second-Safest in North Carolina

In a study by SafeHome, a home security system review site, Cary ranked as the second-safest town or city in North Carolina, right behind Holly Springs. The study looked at data from the 2015 FBI Uniform Crime Report and compared it to the 2014 FBI Uniform Crime Report, FBI figures on numbers of law enforcement and census data.

Over that time frame in the FBI reports, violent crime dropped 20.1 percent in Cary, although property crime increased by 7.5 percent. While not included in this study, the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report actually shows the opposite trend in Cary, though the percentage changes are different.

Cary had a significantly larger citizen-to-police officer ratio than any of the other towns and cities in the top 25 safest in North Carolina. The ratio in Cary is 708 residents for every police officer, while the average ratio for the other 24 towns and cities is 397.54.

In the SafeHome study, Cary ranked 55th in the nation for safety and one of only seven cities in the top 100 to have a population larger than 150,000 people.

Factors for High Ranking

The SafeHome study looked at both crime and demographic data in each municipality to create a safety score for each town. Crimes were also weighed for seriousness, with murder and rape given the most weight while larceny and vehicle theft were given the least weight. The study also factored in the percentage changes in violent and property crime.

Demographic data looked at population density and the size of the youth population, as well as unemployment, median income and education level.

In the study, Cary stood out as one of the towns with the largest proportion of highly educated residents. 60 percent have a bachelor’s degree and 68 percent have at least an associate’s degree. Cary is also an affluent town with a median income of $91,481 and an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent. By comparison, the U.S. Federal Reserve considers a 5 percent unemployment rate to be full employment.

WalletHub also came out with a study recently looking at 182 of the most heavily-populated cities in the United States to see which is the safest. Cary did not make the population cut but Durham, Winston-Salem and Raleigh made it into the study as the 23rd, 39th and 47th safest cities in the country respectively.

Story by staff reports. Photos by Hal Goodtree.