Connecticut’s 20 Safest Cities of 2022

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the eighth annual Safest Cities report.

See if your city made the full list.

Connecticut boasts the fourth-lowest violent crime rate in the US but experienced the fourth-largest increase in property crime during the 2022 reporting year. Package theft is of particular concern among Connecticut residents.

• Violent crime rates
• Property crime rates
• Interesting findings
• The Safest Cities
• Methodology
• How to make a safe home anywhere
• How other cities compare
• How other states compare

Connecticut’s violent crime rate of 1.8 represents a 0% change compared to the previous year. But when it comes to property crime, The Constitution State saw a 9% increase year over year, landing it at the top of the charts for the New England region. Still, Connecticut’s property crime rate is the fourteenth-lowest in the nation.

Our latest State of Safety survey revealed that Connecticut residents are less worried about violent crime and gun violence than the average American. On the other hand, Connecticuters worry about property crime and package theft more often than other Americans, perhaps because they also experience these crimes more often.

12% of Connecticut residents think crime is decreasing, which is four percentage points higher than the national sentiment. 55% of Connecticuters feel safe in their state, which matches the national average but represents the lowest perception of safety in the New England region.

We asked Connecticut residents which crimes they worry may happen to them. See if Connecticuters are concerned about the same crime issues as the rest of the country.

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

Connecticut’s violent crime rate held steady year over year at 1.8. That’s the fourth-lowest rate in the US and in the New England region.

Connecticut residents who responded to our State of Safety survey reported one of the lowest percentages of violent crime experiences in the nation: 4%. That’s six percentage points lower than the national average and seven percentage points lower than what last year’s Connecticuter survey participants reported.

• Violent crime makes up 10% of all crime in Connecticut, which is 7 percentage points lower than the national average and puts the state in a 5-way tie for the second-lowest percentage in the US.
• Robbery accounts for 31% of violent crime in Connecticut, which is the highest percentage in the nation and 12 percentage points above the national average.
• Connecticut experienced a 71% decrease in mass shootings year over year (from 7 to 2).
• In the 2022 reporting year, 8 people were injured and 0 were killed in 2 mass shooting events in Connecticut.
• 24% of Connecticut residents use some form of personal protection (US 34%), and pepper spray is the most popular choice at 12%.
• 45% of Connecticuters say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic, which is 1 percentage point higher than the national sentiment.
• 60% of Connecticut residents feel confident in law enforcement’s approach to crime prevention, which is 4 percentage points higher than the national average.

Connecticut’s property crime rate of 15.7 is the highest of any New England state but lower than the national average of 19.6. It also represents a 9% increase in FBI-reported property crime rates compared to the previous reporting year.

Our survey results also showed an increase in personal experiences with property crime in The Constitution State.

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• 46 Connecticut cities met the criteria to be considered for ranking.
• The top 3 cities—Newtown, Ridgefield, and Simsbury—held on to their spots for the second consecutive year, as did 4 other cities in the top 20.
• Of Connecticut’s 20 safest cities, only Groton experienced a decrease in both violent crime and property crime rates compared to the previous reporting year.
• Danbury—the most populous city in the top 20—was one of just 5 of Connecticut’s safest cities that saw a decrease in property crime rates year over year. The other 4 were Groton, Middletown, Bristol, and Farmington.
• Aggravated assault was the most common violent crime in The Constitution State’s safest cities, but 9 reported 5 or fewer. Guilford reported 0.
• 3 of Connecticut’s safest cities reported 10 or fewer burglaries: New Milford (4), Newtown (9), and Simsbury (10).
• Ridgefield and Newtown also appeared on our last 100 Safest Cities in America

VC=violent crime
PC=property crime

Learn how we identified the safest cities on our methodology page.

Whether your city made our list or not, we encourage everyone to be proactive about home security. One of the best ways to stop a burglary before it happens is to add a home security system.

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We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population as calculated using FBI data. To request a report of the remaining cities in your state, sign up for our email newsletter (we make it easy in a quick form below!) or email info@safewise.com with the subject line: Safest Cities Full Report.

NOTE: If you don’t see your city on the list, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2020.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

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

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed January 24, 2022.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 8, 2022.

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