The State of Safety in America 2022

UPDATE: March 10, 2022

A pandemic-focused survey update of approximately 5,000 Americans was fielded in February and March 2022, and our analysis of the most recent FBI crime data (crimes reported in 2020) was completed in March as well. Full results from this survey and analysis will be published at a later date. Some of the most notable findings are detailed below.

2020 hit us with our first nationwide pandemic lockdown in nearly a century. That year was also a hotbed of social and political issues. Here’s a rundown of how people’s worries about safety and crime matched what was really happening during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We were surprised to find out that overall concern about crime and safety didn’t spike during the wild ride of 2020, even though certain crimes saw increases throughout the country. High daily concern from our State of Safety survey respondents only rose one percentage point year over year between 2019 and 2020—from 46% to 47%.

For the first time in several years, the US saw an overall rise in violent crime, from 3.8 incidents per 1,000 people in 2019 to 4.0 in 2020. But the downward trend in property crime held strong, falling from 21.1 incidents per 1,000 people in 2019 to 19.6 in 2020

• Crime rates rose more often in states where people feel the safest, although it should be noted that most of those crime rates are already below national averages.
• Violent crime rose in 7 of the top 10 states where people feel the safest, versus 3 of the states where people feel least safe.
• Property crime rose in more states where people feel safe (4) than in those where people feel less safe (2).
• Only 3 of the states where people feel the least safe have violent crime rates below the US rate: Washington, New York, and Oregon.
• All but 2 of the states (South Dakota and Montana) where people feel the safest have violent crime rates below the US average.
• 4 of the states where people feel the least safe have property crime rates below the US rate: Nevada, New York, Illinois, and Maryland.
• Half of the states where people feel the safest have property crimes above the US rate: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Utah.

This is just a peek at the insights we’re gaining into how America’s attitudes and perceptions of crime and safety were impacted by the pandemic and other events of the past two years. Our full updated report will be published in June 2022, but keep checking back for mini-updates (like this one) as we are eager to share these new findings.

For the first time in several years, the US saw an overall rise in violent crime, from 3.8 incidents per 1,000 people in 2019 to 4.0 in 2020. But the downward trend in property crime held strong, falling from 21.1 incidents per 1,000 people in 2019 to 19.6 in 2020

The remainder of this article was originally published September 27, 2021

The State of Safety is a nationwide survey that dives into America’s top safety concerns. Over the past three years, we’ve surveyed more than 15,000 Americans—at least 300 from every state—to find out about their perceptions and attitudes about safety and crime.

We use this data to spot trends in how people perceive safety and danger, as well as respondents’ experiences with different types of crimes. We also compare perceptions of safety and danger with the reality of crime statistics in our Safest Cities reports.

Based on participants’ answers and data trends, we’ve adapted the survey each year to respond to current events and areas of growing concern.

• In 2020, we added questions about mass shootings.
• In 2020, we also narrowed our focus to the most impactful and measurable issues: property and violent crime.
• We expanded our questions to address gun violence as a whole this year, not just mass shootings.

This year, we also added questions about package theft, police violence, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Find out more about the State of Safety study on our methodology page.

On top of asking people how much they worry about safety every day, we wanted to find out if people feel safe in their state.

We were surprised to see an 8% drop in the overall level of daily concern about safety over the past three years—even though nearly 7 in 10 Americans think crime is increasing.

With the global pandemic and widespread civil unrest across the country in 2020, we expected to see general concern on the rise, but it rose by only one percentage point year over year.

• The Mid-Atlantic region had the highest level of daily concern of any region—59% this year. It also had the biggest jump in concern, rising 8% since 2019 (the same as the US average).
• The West North Central region had the lowest level of daily concern of any region—39% for each of the past 3 years.
• Over the past 3 years, levels of concern didn’t fluctuate more than 8% in any region.
• Two regions remained steady in concern over time: East South Central and West North Central.
• Regions in the southern US generally have higher levels of concern about crime and safety

• Among the most-concerned states, safety concern fluctuations ranged from 5% to 16% with the exception of Alabama, where concern stayed steady over time.
• Among the most-concerned states, half of the group surpassed the US average safety concern fluctuation of 8% over 3 years.
• Virginia saw the biggest swing in concern levels year over year, dropping 23% between 2019 and 2020, and jumping 43% between 2020 and 2021.

• Among the least-concerned states, levels of concern fluctuated broadly, ranging from a 14% drop in Kansas to a 5% increase in Alaska.
• More than half of the least-concerned states fell under the US average percentage of fluctuation.
• Vermont’s low level of daily concern about safety is 62% below the national average. Vermont has the fourth-lowest violent crime rate in the country, and the eighth-lowest property crime rate.

Despite the traumatic fallout of violent crimes, Americans are less worried about a violent crime actually happening to them. Americans also experience far fewer violent crimes than they do property crimes. In 2019, violent crimes made up 15% of all reported crime in the US.

After an overwhelming number of respondents from our 2019 survey expressed concern about mass shootings, we added that category to the State of Safety survey in 2020. Last year, we received another avalanche of answers indicating concern over gun violence in general.

For the 2021 State of Safety survey, we asked Americans about their concerns and experience with gun violence.

• For the first time, respondents mentioned hearing gunshots where they live—from Alaska to Connecticut.
• Despite stay-at-home orders, mass shootings jumped 47% year over year.
• Mention of riots and protests came up in at least 460 answers to the question, “what keeps you up at night?”. Gun-related terms came up over 130 times.

For the third consecutive year, property crime is still the crime Americans feel is most likely to happen to them, and they’re not wrong. In 2019, a property crime happened every 4.6 seconds in the US. But the property crime rate fell 4% year over year—and dipped below seven million total crimes for the first time in at least 20 years.

• Security cameras and security systems are the only security measures that are growing in popularity, with both guard animals and firearms seeing a drop year over year. 
• Although general concern rose minimally year over year (2%) and most Americans think crime is on the rise, use of property protection measures dropped by 6% this year.
• More states (both high and low experience) saw reported experience with property crime increase between 2019 and 2021 (9 of the 12 listed—75%).

We asked Americans to tell us what specific worries keep them up at night. Here are some of the takeaways:

• Property crimes (especially break-ins) continue to be the most worrisome overall.
• People are more worried about car theft and break-ins this year—a crime that saw increases in many areas during pandemic lockdowns.
• Digital security (identity theft, hacking, and data privacy) continues to be top of mind for many Americans.
• More people are concerned about things that may lead to crime this year—unemployment, drugs, homelessness, job and housing insecurity, and civil unrest were mentioned often.
• Natural disasters and extreme weather came up more often this year, especially wildfires and flooding.
• Perceived neighborhood safety (or lack thereof) is a strong trend that impacts higher levels of concern or a complete lack of concern.

Even though Americans continue to think crime is on the rise, that isn’t enough to increase security measures.

• Only 1 in 5 Americans has increased security measures in the past year.
• 1 in 3 Americans uses some method of personal protection like pepper spray.
• Overall, insurance is by far the most widely used form of protection that Americans use, with only 14% saying they use none.
• 38% of Americans don’t do anything to provide extra security to their property.

• The Facts behind True Crime: Is Murder Really a Threat?
• 100 Safest Cities in America
• 10 Safest Metro Cities in the US
• 50 Safest College Towns
• 50 Safest Cities to Raise a Child

Gun violence 
SafeWise uses data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) to track gun violence incidents. We also adhere to the GVA definitions for mass shootings and officer-involved incidents.

• Mass shooting definition: “If four or more people are shot or killed in a single incident, not involving the shooter, that incident is categorized as a mass shooting based purely on that numerical threshold.”
• Officer-involved incidents: Safewise combined multiple GVA reports to determine the total number of officer-involved incidents per year. The numbers in our report represent the total number of officers injured, officers killed, subjects injured, and subjects killed in the identified year.

All GVA data is current as of the date last accessed. The GVA regularly changes and updates its data as incidents are examined for accuracy.

Package theft
Although package theft, if represented at all, is included in the FBI UCR data among larceny-theft incidents, SafeWise recognizes it as a subcategory that is growing across the country. We have adopted the definition of package theft as identified in a recent American Journal of Criminal Justice study.

• Package theft definition: “Taking possession of a package or its contents, outside of a residence or business, where it has been commercially delivered or has been left for commercial pick-up, with intent to deprive the rightful owner of the contents.”

FBI: Crime Data Explorer, Accessed March 8, 2022.

FBI: Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “2019 Crime in the United States,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 15, 2021.

For more definitions and data sources, see our methodology page.