Manchester, Nashua named safest in WalletHub study

WalletHub has unveiled its rankings of the country’s safest cities, and two cities from New Hampshire made the cut. Nashua ranked 15th, while Manchester secured the 60th spot. 

The rankings were determined by three factors—natural disaster risk, financial safety, and community security. 

South Burlington, Vermont, topped the list as the safest city in the nation, boasting good road safety with the lowest pedestrian fatalities and a high number of EMTs and paramedics per capita. Additionally, it has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

Natural disaster risk included things like earthquakes, riverine flood, hail, hurricane storm-surge, tornados, and wildfire risks. Financial safety was evaluated through indicators such as unemployment and underemployment rates, uninsured population and driver shares, foreclosure rates, median credit scores, debt-to-income ratios, and poverty rates, among others. Additional considerations included job security, employment growth, emergency savings, retirement plan access, personal bankruptcy filings, and the share of seriously underwater mortgages.

Home and community safety was evaluated with a total of 60 points, focusing on the presence of terrorist attacks, murders and nonnegligent manslaughters, forcible rapes and pedestrian fatalities per capita, along with drug poisoning deaths. Other factors included the number of mass shootings, assaults, thefts, hate crimes per capita, and the perception of safety (based on visitors’ assessments). The presence of law enforcement employees, active firefighters, EMTs, and the share of sheltered homeless individuals were also weighed. 

Nashua and Manchester both ranked high on natural disasters. WalletHub gave each a score of 111 each.  Nashua got a score of 16 on home safety and eight on financial safety, while Manchester got a score of 67 on home safety and nine on financial safety. 

“When people think about safety in a city, their minds probably immediately go to things like the crime rate, auto fatality rate or risk of natural disasters,” said Chip Lupo, an analyst for WalletHub.“The safest cities in America protect residents from these threats of bodily harm and property damage, but on top of that, they also help secure people’s financial safety. Financial safety includes things like minimizing the risk of fraud and identity theft, keeping the population employed and insured, and combating homelessness.”