Three Greater Boston suburbs are among the 10 safest communities in the country, according to a ranking from SafeWise.
Basing its analysis on FBI statistics of violent and property crime, along with research on local initiatives in public safety, public health and educational offerings, SafeWise ranked Wayland, Norfolk and Hopkington at No. 2, 3 and 8 in the nation, respectively. Furthermore, the Sudbury, Franklin and Weston communities appeared in the top 20, and 16 Boston-area suburbs were in SafeWise’s top 100.
Below, our chart breaks down the position of those 16 areas, along with their local crime stats:
| Town | National Rank | Violent Crimes per 1,000 | Property Crimes per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wayland | 2 | 0.44 | 0.96 |
| Norfolk | 3 | 0.17 | 1.86 |
| Hopkinton | 8 | 0.06 | 2.65 |
| Sudbury | 11 | 0.05 | 3.17 |
| Franklin | 14 | 0.15 | 3.2 |
| Weston | 20 | 0.25 | 3.5 |
| Clinton | 23 | 0.44 | 3.64 |
| Sharon | 32 | 0.00 | 4.46 |
| Medway | 36 | 0.23 | 4.41 |
| Holliston | 40 | 0.35 | 4.32 |
| Westford | 53 | 0.51 | 4.44 |
| Bedford | 58 | 0.42 | 4.65 |
| Norton | 60 | 0.21 | 4.93 |
| Medfield | 68 | 0.32 | 4.91 |
| Groton | 75 | 0.09 | 5.33 |
| Shrewsbury | 86 | 0.05 | 5.71 |
Photo Credit: John Phelan, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Parish_in_Wayland_MA.jpg
Where is my town, Ipswich?
How is Millis not on this list? It is surrounded by Medfield, Norfolk and Medway.
Glad I live in #8 in the national ranking, but you spelled HOPKINTON wrong (no “g”). A very common mistake. 🙂
Thanks for pointing that out, Jeanine! Ironically, our original chart had the correct spelling – we can thank our Web browser’s overzealous spell check for adding in the “g”.