List ranks Sammamish as the safest place to live in Washington
Mar 17, 2021, 11:12 AM
A new list crowns Sammamish as the safest place to live in Washington state, the latest in a long line of accolades the city has garnered over the years.
The ranking from SafeWise focuses largely on rates of violent crimes and property crimes per every 1,000 residents. Statewide, Sammamish led the way with a rate of 0.3 violent crimes per 1,000 people, and 6 property crimes per 1,000.
Coming in as the runner-up is Bainbridge Island, with 0.4 violent crimes per 1,000 and 9 property crimes per 1,000. Camas, Lake Forest Park, and Mercer Island rounded out the top five, respectively.
Live in Sammamish for the schools and then get out
The bottom five cities in order were Seattle, Lakewood, Spokane, Tacoma, and Tukwila. Tukwila’s issues with property crime are especially significant, with 163.9 per every 1,000 people, the most of any of the 75 cities in the SafeWise ranking. Tacoma had the highest rate of violent crimes at 8.5 per 1,000 people.
Combined, the state’s rate of violent crime is “consistently below the national average,” although Washington’s rate of property crime sits 27% above that national rate. Larceny theft composes 71% of the state’s reported property crimes, followed by burglaries at 17%.
Of the safest cities in the state, 55% boasted a median household income of over $100,000.
This isn’t the first time Sammamish has garnered praise. In 2018, MONEY magazine ranked it among the top 10 best places to live in the entire country. Washington also grabbed the top spot on the list of best states in the country for the second year in a row in 2021, as part of an annual ranking from U.S. News.
