Washington’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.

Washington worries less about crime and safety on a daily basis than most of America, which is no surprise when you see how low crime rates are in the state’s 20 safest cities.

• 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

Washington's violent crime rate continued to decline for the second year in a row, moving down from 3.0 incidents per 1,000 people to 2.9. The overall property crime rate in Washington stayed the same as last year at 27.3 incidents per 1,000 people, but there was a small uptick in the number of property crimes.

Within the Pacific region, Washington ties with Oregon for the second-lowest violent crime rate behind Hawaii (2.5). Property crime is another matter, with Washington posting the highest rate in the region, just ahead of Oregon (26.6)—it displaced long-standing Alaska, which dropped 22% since last year.

On the national level, Washington's violent crime rate is 28% lower than the national rate (US 4.0) while its property crime rate is 39% higher (US 19.6). Among all 50 states, The Evergreen State has the twelfth-lowest violent crime rate and the fourth-highest property crime rate.

Daily concern about crime and safety plummeted 13% year over year, but reports of personal experience with crime were a mixed bag.

Violent crime experiences rose from 9% to 10% this year—climbing for the third consecutive year. Washington respondents in our State of Safety survey also reported less concern about violent crime happening to them—35% versus 41% nationwide.

Property crime experiences were cut in half year over year, dropping to 15% from 30% in the last survey year. Fewer respondents reported a personal experience with gun violence this year, falling from 9% to 7%. Interestingly, Washington is more worried about a gun violence incident happening than the rest of the country (40% versus 38% nationwide).

Package theft is the crime Washingtonians are most concerned will happen to them, but they’re still less worried than other Americans (43% versus 45% nationwide). Despite lower-than-average concern about porch pirates, Washington experienced more package thefts than the rest of the country (24% versus 20% nationwide).

Despite consistently low levels of concern, only 39% of Washingtonians told us they feel safe in their state, compared to 55% nationally. Washington residents have the second-lowest confidence in their state’s safety, tying with Nevada at 39%, and just above Louisiana and New Mexico at 34% each.

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

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

Washington residents have around 15% less worry about violent crime than other Americans. The state also boasts a violent crime rate that’s consistently below the national average.

• Aggravated assault is the most prevalent violent crime, accounting for 64% of reported crimes, versus 70% nationally.
• Washington sees fewer murders statewide than most of the country, but murder accounts for a slightly smaller percentage of violent crimes in the safest cities (1% versus 2% nationwide).
• Robbery makes up a larger portion of violent crimes in Washington than nationwide (23% state versus 19% national).
• All of Washington's safest cities listed violent crime rates of 1.6 incidents per 1,000 people or lower.
• None of the safest cities reported more than 96 violent crime incidents.
• 36% of respondents said they use some form of personal protection like a stun gun or pepper spray (US 34%).
• 39% say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic (US 44%).

• 53% named gun violence their top safety concern, matching the national average.
• 40% are most worried about a gun violence incident happening to them (US 38%).
• Washington saw 7 mass shooting incidents in 2021, up 5 from 2020.
• 36% of survey respondents worry about police violence every day (US 40%), and 40% voice confidence in law enforcement’s approach to crime (US 56%).

Despite a property crime rate that’s 39% higher than the national average, Washington residents are less concerned about property crime happening to them (40% versus the national average of 42%).

• Washington is 1 of only 11 states that reported higher property crime rates year over year.
• Burglaries make up 19% of all reported property crimes statewide, 3 percentage points higher than the US average. In the safest cities, burglaries account for 16% of all property crime.
• Larceny-theft is the most prevalent property crime in the state, making up 68% of all property crimes. Nationwide, larceny-theft accounts for 71% of all property crime, and it makes up 76% in Washington’s safest cities.
• All but 2 of the safest cities kept property crime rates below state, regional, and national levels.
• 65% of survey respondents use some form of property protection (US 60%), with 33% of those using a dog or other guard animal.
• 29% say the security of their property has been affected by the pandemic, matching the national average.

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.

• 83 cities met criteria to be considered for ranking
• Sammamish is the top city for the second year in a row.
• Ferndale (9) and Liberty Lake (14) are both new to the list this year.
• Both Poulsbo (17) and Marysville (18) leaped up 18 spots to land in the top 20 this year.
• Marysville (population 71,522) and Sammamish (population 66,878) are the largest cities on the list and the only cities with more than 35,000 people.
• The violent crime rate in the safest cities is just 0.8 incidents per 1,000 people—72% lower than the state rate (2.9).
• Lake Forest Park (11) reported 0 total violent crimes this year, but it has the highest property crime rate among the safest cities, so it lands smack in the middle of the ranking.
• 7 cities reported single-digit violent crime totals.
• The property crime rate in the safest cities is 12.7 incidents per 1,000 people, which is less than half the state rate (27.3).
• Oak Harbor (7) has the lowest property crime rate in the state at 4.0—it's the only city to report fewer than 100 total property crimes.

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
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• 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.