Minnesota’s 20 Safest Cities of 2022

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the eighth annual Safest Cities report.

See if your city made the full list.

In our 2022 State of Safety survey, residents of Minnesota (33%) were far less likely to worry about their safety on a daily basis than most Americans (47%). This makes sense since Minnesota’s violent crime rate falls far below the national rate, and its property crime rate isn’t too high above the national average.

All of Minnesota's 20 safest cities reported violent crime and property crime rates well below the state average.

• Violent crime rates
• Property crime rates
• Interesting findings
• The Safest Cities
• Methodology
• How to make a safe home anywhere
• How other cities compare
• How other states compare

Minnesota's crime rates increased. The violent crime rate rose from 2.4 per 1,000 people to 2.8, while property crime increased from 20.9 per 1,000 to 21.2.

Even with the increases in Minnesota's crime rates this year, the state remained below the national average for violent crimes. It rose slightly above the national average for property crime.

In our latest State of Safety survey, we found that 33% of Minnesota residents are highly concerned about safety every day (US 47%), and 48% feel safe in this state (US 55%). 

Minnesotan survey participants tended to worry a lot less about their personal safety on a daily basis than last year. This is surprising since Minnesota is one of just nine states that increased in both property and violent crime this year.

We found that the majority of Minnesota residents (45%) were worried about package theft—more than violent crime, gun violence, and general property crime. This worry may be warranted since 29% experienced package theft in the past 12 months, which is one of the highest package theft rates in the country.

We asked Minnesota residents which crimes they worry may happen to them. See if Minnesota residents are concerned about the same crime issues as the rest of the country.

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

A slight rise in Minnesota's violent crime rate this year reflects that nearly half of survey respondents don't feel safe in the state. This growing unease also aligns with an increase in personal experiences with violent crime and gun violence compared to the last reporting year.

• 48% of Minnesota residents report feeling safe in their state compared to 55% of Americans.
• 13% of survey participants reported having a personal experience with violent crime in the last 12 months prior to our survey—4 percentage points higher than the previous year.
• There were almost 16,000 violent crimes in The North Star State. That’s up 17% from last year's results.
• Although this is the second consecutive year the violent crime rate has risen, Minnesota still has the lowest violent crime rate in the West North Central region and is well below the national violent crime rate.
• 25% of respondents use some form of personal protection—much lower than the national average of 34%.
• 45% of Minnesotans say their personal safety has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 44% of Americans.

Overall, gun safety is a big concern for The Great Lakes State. This may be due to the increase in mass shootings from the year before.

• 52% of Minnesotans named gun violence as a top safety concern—slightly lower than the US average of 53%.
• 38% of those surveyed are most worried about a gun violence incident happening to them (US 38%).
• 11% of those surveyed reported an experience with gun violence in the past 12 months prior to the survey, 4 percentage points higher than last year (US 8%).

In terms of property crime, this is the second consecutive year where property crime has risen statewide—bucking the nationwide downward trend. It’s also one of just 11 states to see a rise in its property crime rate.

• Minnesotans reported fewer personal experiences with property crime this year (18%)—12 percentage points lower than last year.
• Minnesota is one of only 9 states to see an increase in both violent crimes and property crime rates across the board.
• Property crime increased by 1.9% in The North Star State year over year.
• 29% of survey respondents reported experiencing package theft in the 12 months prior to the survey (US 20%).
• 54% of Minnesotans surveyed use some form of property protection (US 60%).
• The top form of property protection in Minnesota this year is security cameras with 25% using them compared to 28% of Americans.
• 32% of Minnesota residents say the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the security of their property, compared to 29% nationally.

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• 13 (65%) of the safest cities reported fewer than 100 total property crimes.
• Minnesota reported 0 murders among the safest cities. 
• No city reported more than 1.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents.
• Corcoran moved up 1 to be the new top city in Minnesota—one of 3 cities (the top 3, in fact) to report 0 violent crime incidents.
• Montevideo made the most dramatic improvement, rising 28 spots to number 7 this year.
• No cities are brand new to the list this year.

VC=Violent crime
PC=Property crime

Learn how we identified the safest cities on our methodology page.

Whether your city made our list or not, we encourage everyone to be proactive about home security. One of the best ways to stop a burglary before it happens is to add a home security system.

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We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population as calculated using FBI data. To request a report of the remaining cities in your state, sign up for our email newsletter (we make it easy in a quick form below!) or email info@safewise.com with the subject line: Safest Cities Full Report.

NOTE: If you don’t see your city on the list, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2020.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

• Best Home Security Systems
• Best Home Security Cameras
• Best Video Doorbell Cameras
• Burglary Stats & Facts
• The Most Burglarized City in Every State

FBI: Crime Data Explorer, Accessed March 8, 2022.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed January 24, 2022.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 8, 2022.

For definitions and more on data sources, see our methodology page.