MoneyGeek names Naperville 8th safest city in America for 2024, down from No. 1 last year
Naperville is the eighth safest city in America for 2024, according to a study by online personal finance data company MoneyGeek.
Though a top 10 finish out of hundreds of municipalities evaluated in the annual report, Naperville’s 2024 ranking comes up short from last year, when MoneyGeek placed the city at No. 1.
MoneyGeek’s yearly analysis sorts localities by their cost of crime per capita.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the direct costs of crime include funding needed to support law enforcement and correctional services, as well as financial losses sustained by crime victims, such as lost money and property damages.
While MoneyGeek’s study primarily focuses on the direct, financial impact of crime, other more ancillary effects — mental health care needs or depressed home values, for instance — are likewise factored into analyses. How much more violent crimes cost a community than property crimes are also quantified.
To rank cities by safety, MoneyGeek used the most crime statistics reported to the FBI, then paired the data with academic research on the societal cost of different types of crimes. MoneyGeek relied on research by professors Kathryn McCollister and Michael French of the University of Miami and Hai Fang of the University of Colorado in Denver.
This year’s rankings are based on the assessment of 302 cities with populations of 100,000 or more across the United States.
Naperville’s crime cost per capita was found to be $402. That’s more than double from last year’s list, when Naperville came out on top with a crime cost per capita of $156.
No other Illinois cities cracked the top 15 this year. Elgin came in at No. 54, with a crime cost per capita of $759. Aurora was close behind at No. 61, followed by Joliet at No. 86.
Joliet dropped more than tenfold from last year, as MoneyGeek’s previous list had the southwest suburb at No. 8. Cost-wise, the change translates from a 2023 crime cost per capita of $247 to $1,055 for 2024.
Chicago ranked No. 248, with a crime cost per capita of $3,553.
MoneyGeek did note in its 2024 report that data was limited for a handful of states, including Illinois. It omitted any cities that did not report murder and rape.
This year’s No. 1 spot went to Thousand Oaks, California, for a per capita cost of $241. On the other end of the spectrum, Birmingham, Alabama, came in last, with the highest cost of $11,392.
