The 10 Safest Cities In Massachusetts For 2020

We used data and science to determine the places in Massachusetts where everyone sleeps safe and sound.

Editor's Note: This article has been update for 2020. This is our sixth time rankings the safest places to live in Massachusetts.

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When the good people of Massachusetts aren't rooting for Harvard's Pilgrims in Cambridge or enjoying a piping hot bowl of 'chowdah' in Boston, they can be found keeping some of the coolest places in Massachusetts safe.

While the whole place is downright lovely, some spots in The Bay State deserve special attention for standing out as truly extraordinary and crazy safe. This is why HomeSnacks created a list of the top ten safest places to live in Massachusetts for 2020.

But how exactly is one to tell where the safest places are to live in Massachusetts? Well, data of course.

And that's where HomeSnacks comes in: we've broken down the safest cities in The Baked Bean State based on the most recent FBI data on property and violent crime in places with more than 5,000 residents. And at this point we're quite the experts on ranking safe cities, it's the sixth time we've ranked the safest places in Massachusetts to date.

Whether your looking to move to a quintessential "Old World" type place like New Bedford, a family friendly place like Wellesley, or a place for young professionals like Waltham, there is a safe place for everyone.

So, want to know where your kids can play outside safely until the street lights come on in Massachusetts? Keep reading.

All chowdah' and crazy Boston Red Sox fans aside, Massachusetts is the 12th oldest state in the country, so that's all the more reason that they should have the safest cities. They've had some time to perfect their safety standards. And, folks, that's just what the Massachusetts places on our top ten safest list have done.

So, what city is the safest place to live in Massachusetts for 2020? Well, according to the most recent FBI data we crunched, Wayland is the safest place to live in The Pilgrim State. It's not surprising considering Wayland scored a 9/10 snackability safety score with an emphasis on jobs and education.

More jobs = less time to be naughty, right?

Check out the rest of our not so naughty, very safe Massachusetts' cities to see how your city ranked. And if you don't find your favorite there, head to the bottom.

For more reading on safe places to live in and around Massachusetts, check out:

Next 10 Cities

How we calculated the safest cities in Massachusetts for 2020

While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the safest, we didn't want to rely on speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI's most recent report of crime (Published Sept 2019) in Massachusetts.

Specifically, we analyzed the FBI's Uniform Crime Report which summarizes the number of property crimes and violent crimes in each city per year. We used two criteria:

Violent crimes per capita (murders, assaults, rapes, armed robberies)

Property crimes per capita (thefts, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts)

For example, there were a total of 2 crimes committed in Wayland which had a reported population of 14,088. That means the number of crimes per capita is 0.0001 which translates into a 1 in 7,044 chance of being the victim of a crime.

We only looked at cities that have populations of more than 5,000 people reported to the FBI in 2018, the last reporting year. This left us with a total of 238 of the biggest cities in Massachusetts to rank.

We ranked each city for each criteria from 1 to 238 where 1 in any particular category is the safest.

Next, we averaged each places two criteria to create a Safety Index. We crowned the place with the lowest overall Safety Score "The Safest Place In Massachusetts" with any ties going to the bigger city. You can download the data here.

The safest city in Massachusetts, based on our criteria, is Wayland. The most dangerous city in Massachusetts? Holyoke, where residents had a 1 in 19 chance of being the victim of a crime.

Note: This report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments, nor does it reflect the fact that people from out of town may come into a community and cause a crime. It simply looks at where crimes occurred most frequently, based on a city's population.

There You Have It - The Safest Cities In The Bay State

Looking at the data, you can tell that Wayland is as safe as they come, according to science and data.

But as most Massachusetts residents would agree, almost every place here has its safe and not safe parts. So just make sure you're informed ahead of time.

Here's a look at the most dangerous cities in Massachusetts according to the data:

Holyoke Springfield North Adams

Where Are The 10 Safest Cities In Massachusetts For 2020?

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Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In Massachusetts

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Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn.