I read a recent post about the 10 most dangerous cities. I, of course, scrolled for our familiar Oregon cities and was nicely surprised because Salem had a lower crime rate than Eugene in 2009. QR Press created a list based on the FBI’s 2009 crime data. I went to the raw data just to verify their data and this is how things stack up for Oregon cities with more than 50,000 residents.
Crimes committed per 100 residents for Oregon cities
- Eugene 12
- Portland 10.6
- Salem 8.8
- Medford 8.7
- Gresham 8.5
- Corvallis 6.9
- Bend 5.2
- Hillsboro 4.2
- Beaverton 3.8
When I looked at cities up and down the coast from Washington to California that were similar sized to Salem, they were generally between 6.0-6.5 crimes per 100 residents. There is still work to be done in the city of Salem, but for the first time, to my knowledge, we had a lower crime rate than Eugene. That, my friends, rocks.
If you are considering relocating to Salem Oregon get the real time scoop on crime stats at Crime Reports.