Snoqualmie made another list ranking the safest cities in Washington state. These annual rankings from various online websites [most often] use FBI crime statistics, which are usually reported over a year after the particular calendar year has ended. So for this most recent ranking, 2016 FBI crime stats were used, as it is the most current report available.
In previous years Snoqualmie has ranked 16, 13, and 9…. all dependent on the size of the cities used and how the crime data was weighted. In all rankings, the websites calculated the likelihood of the crimes occurring for 1,000 people in each city in an attempt to make the rankings fair.
For this latest 2018 Washington State Safest Cities List complied by the National Council for Home Safety and Security, only cities with 10,000 residents were used and cities that did not submit a complete crime report to the FBI were also eliminated. Due to its smaller size, North Bend was not included this particular list.
Two types of crime categories tracked by the FBI were used for the rankings: violent crime (aggravated assault, murder, rape and robbery) and property crime (burglary, arson, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft). The violent crime category was then weighted as they are considered more severe, and accounted for 1.5 of the total.
Snoqualmie came in at #10 in this new Safest Cities list. It had the lowest violent crime stats of all cities on the list, followed closely by Mercer Island. The property crime stat, though, put Snoqualmie at #11. The weighting of the violent crime stat bumped Snoqualmie to #10 on the final list.
Although North Bend was not included on this list, the same 2016 FBI crime stats are used on other websites that track crime in various Washington cities. North Bend’s property crime rate per 1000 residents was 22.11 and violent crime rate per 1000 residents was .89.
North Bend’s crime statistics are similar to Kirkland, which ranked #20 on the list. North Bend is also considered a very safe place to live by multiple tracking websites, earning an A or A-. Additionally, between 2015 and 2016, stats for the two crime categories showed a 38% decrease in North Bend.
By comparison, in nearby Seattle, which is one of the fastest growing large cities in the nation, the property crime rate was 54.88 and the violent crime rate was 6.13. Those average rates in Washington State are 44.97 and 3.87.
You can see the full list HERE.
2018 Washington State Safest Cities