Virginia Beach is again the safest big city in the country, according to a study by researchers at personal finance company MoneyGeek.

They took a unique approach to defining safety by considering not just the rate of crime incidence in each of the 315 included cities, but also the actual cost of each act to victims and to society in general.

With the numbers crunched the safest US city overall was Naperville, IL with a crime cost per capita of just $187. In second place is our neighbor Cary, NC with a crime cost of $195, and in third is Murrieta, CA with a crime cost of $200.

Cities with more than 300,000 residents (66 total) were considered big cities by the researchers, and among those Virginia Beach was the safest, with a crime cost per capita of $611, placing us at position 65 overall. Not bad out of 315.

The next safest big city was Honolulu, HI with a crime cost of $695. It was 79th overall. For comparison’s sake, New York City has a crime cost of $1,204 and is in 11th place among big cities and 142nd overall.

This isn’t the first time Virginia Beach has been recognized for being a safe big city. Advisorsmith called us the safest big city last year, and did the same for 2018. In 2019 Wallethub called Virginia Beach the 6th safest big city in the country.

Photo Courtesy Rain0975 / CC BY-ND 2.0