6 Kane County Cities Among Top 50 Safest in Illinois
Five Kane County Communities — or six, if you count Bartlett, which has a small part of its footprint in Kane County — made SafeWise’s 2019 list of top 50 Safest Cities in Illinois.
One of those communities — Huntley — made to the top 100 safest cities nationwide. Huntley was No. 41 in the U.S., which includes only those cities with populations above 2,500.
Campton Hills is once again SafeWise’s No. 1 Safest City in Illinois.
Rural communities, of course, tend to be ranked higher in safety than urban centers. That said, all the cities on the list have data they can market to prospective home buyers and businesses.
“These cities should be proud of their records for safety, especially considering that Illinois’s violent crime rate (5.28) is higher than the national rate of 4.49,” SafeWise said in its report. “In fact, the top five cities all had five or fewer violent crimes in 2017, with our number one city, Campton Hills, reporting zero.”
Last year. Illinois was excluded from the SafeWise rankings due to incomplete crime reporting to the FBI, “but we’re happy to honor the 50 safest cities from The Prairie State this year,” the company said.
Here are Kane County’s safest cities:
No. 1 — Campton Hills
No. 2 — Gilberts
No. 5 — Huntley
No. 27 — Geneva
No. 32 — Bartlett
No. 34 — Pingree Grove
How Kane’s Other Cities Ranked
Rank / City / Population / Violent Crime / Property Crime
| 59 | Algonquin | 31,096 | 0.68 | 12.06 |
| 60 | West Dundee | 7,365 | 0.68 | 16.84 |
| 81 | Carpentersville | 38,380 | 0.86 | 19.46 |
| 83 | Lake in the Hills | 28,798 | 0.87 | 2.12 |
| 117 | Batavia | 26,425 | 1.25 | 15.70 |
| 127 | South Elgin | 22,504 | 1.33 | 8.18 |
| 151 | St. Charles | 32,780 | 1.71 | 8.18 |
| 152 | North Aurora | 17,542 | 1.71 | 15.96 |
| 165 | Elgin | 112,767 | 1.99 | 14.00 |
| 187 | Hampshire | 6,367 | 2.51 | 4.55 |
| 189 | Aurora | 201,599 | 2.58 | 13.22 |
For comparison purposes, other communities ranked:
| Rank | City | Population | Violent Crime Rate | Property Crime Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Hinsdale | 17,765 | 0.34 | 6.64 |
| 19 | Lake Zurich | 20,012 | 0.35 | 15.84 |
| 27 | Geneva | 21,941 | 0.41 | 8.25 |
| 39 | Yorkville | 19,155 | 0.52 | 8.61 |
| 87 | Naperville | 147,934 | 0.92 | 11.60 |
How SafeWise Picked the Safest Cities in America
To identify the 100 safest cities in the country, SafeWise analyzed FBI crime report statistics and population data for 2017 (the most recent year for which data was available).⁵
For the national rankings, SafeWise excluded towns with populations below 2,500 because those are considered rural by census definitions.
Then SafeWise set a population threshold (15,000) based on the median population after those towns were excluded. Cities that fell below that threshold were excluded, along with cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI.
Cities were ranked based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) in each city. If there was a tie, SafeWise factored in the number of property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft).
To level the playing field, SafeWise calculated the rate of crimes per 1,000 people in each city.
Both smaller towns and larger metro areas will be ranked for safety in later additions to our Safest Cities series. Check out the full methodology to learn more about how we rank the Safest Cities.
Sources:
- FBI, Uniform Crime Reporting, “2017 Crime in the United States, Table 1”
- Pew Research Center, “5 Facts about Crime in the US”
- FBI, Uniform Crime Reporting, “2017 Crime in the United States, Table 1”
- United States Census Bureau, American FactFinder, “Median Household Income”
- FBI, Uniform Crime Reporting, “2017 Crime in the United States”; United States Census Bureau, American FactFinder, “Community Facts”
