Indiana’s 10 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.

Indiana has plenty to be proud of this year thanks to decreasing violent crime and property crime. However, our State of Safety survey results show that most Hoosiers think crime is increasing, and fewer than half feel safe in the state.

• 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

Indiana is 1 of just 14 states that experienced decreases in both violent crime and property crime this reporting year. Both its violent crime and property crime rates fall below the national averages.

According to our latest State of Safety survey, Hoosiers’ daily level of concern about safety and security is lower than the national average (IN 44% vs. US 47%). 

50% of Indiana residents feel concerned about property crime, and package theft comes in a close second at 49%. Hoosiers worry less about violent crime (45%) and gun violence (44%), which makes sense because our survey respondents were more likely to have experienced property crime than violent crime.

Less than half of the Hoosiers we surveyed felt safe in their state (48%), which is lower than the US average of 55%. Indiana residents are also more likely than the average American to believe crime is increasing (IN 68% vs. US 66%).

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

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

Indiana’s violent crime rate of 3.6 is below the national average of 4.0 and represents a 3% decrease year over year. The nationwide violent crime rate increased by 5% during the same period.

Despite decreasing violent crime, the Hoosiers we surveyed felt more concerned about violent crime than the average American. 13% claimed to have experienced violent crime in the 12 months prior to the survey, which is 3 percentage points higher than the national average.

• Compared to its regional neighbors (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin), Indiana is the only state that saw a decline in violent crime year over year.
• 50 people were injured and 26 were killed in 14 mass shooting events in Indiana this reporting year.
• The number of mass shooting events in Indiana increased by 100% year over year, from 7 to 14.
• 32% of Indiana residents use some form of personal protection (US 34%).
• Of the Hoosiers who use personal protection, most (17%) prefer firearms.
• 40% of Indiana residents say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic (US 44%).

Indiana’s property crime rate of 17.8 is lower than the national average (19.6) but above the East North Central regional average (16.1). Property crime in Indiana decreased year over year.

The Hoosiers we surveyed felt more concerned about property crime than the average American, with 50% reporting daily levels of concern (US 42%). This isn’t surprising considering 20% of Indiana respondents claimed to have experienced property crime in the 12 months prior to the survey, up from 7% the previous year.

• Property crime in Indiana decreased by 8% year over year, which is 1 percentage point higher than the national average.
• 56% of Indiana residents use some form of property protection (US 60%).
• Of the Hoosiers who use some form of property protection, most preferred security cameras and guard dogs (27% each).
• 31% of Indiana residents say the security of their property has been affected by the pandemic (US 29%).

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.

• 38 Indiana cities met the criteria for ranking this year.
• 4 of this year’s 10 safest cities are new to the list, including the chart-topping Dyer. The other newcomers are St. John, Chesterton, and Frankfort.
• The most populous safest city on this year’s list—Carmel—accounts for 19% of violent crime and 21% of property crime among all 10 cities.
• Dyer, Zionsville, St. John, and Chesterton reported fewer than 10 burglaries and fewer than 10 motor vehicle thefts.
• Brownsburg was the only safest city to experience a decrease in violent crime year over year.
• No city saw a decrease in both violent crime and property crime.
• Zionsville also appeared on our most recent 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.

• Best Home Security Systems
• Best Home Security Cameras
• Best Video Doorbell Cameras
• Burglary Stats & Facts
• The Most Burglarized City in Every State

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.