It's Official - This Is The Safest US City To Live In In 2025

When people consider pulling up stakes and moving to a new city, crime, employment, schools, and where the cost of living is highest, are frequently the first things they research before making a relocation decision. SmartAsset, a financial services company, used data from a range of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Database, to determine which large city is the safest. They ranked 50 municipalities using standard criteria like crime rates, traffic deaths, overdose statistics, and excessive drinking. One particular city, nicknamed the Capital of Silicon Valley, ranked safest with a per capita violent crime rate of 0.0053%. San Jose, founded in 1777 and the site of the first capital of California, is the third-largest city in the state, but it might be best known as the home to thousands of tech companies.

Large cities are defined as municipalities with a population of 250,000 or more. San Jose, with almost a million people, sprawls across 178 square miles and is located around 50 miles southeast of San Francisco. In SmartAsset's 2025 study, a little more than 5,000 violent crimes and 25,715 property crimes were reported. Compare that to about 38,000 violent crimes and around 79,500 property crimes in the city ranked 50th in the study — Memphis. Among the other safety metrics measured, residents of San Jose experienced 17.4 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 and almost seven traffic deaths per 100,000. About 18% of the adults reported excessive drinking. On top of that, the city's police department reports solving almost 100% of its murder cases.

San Jose and the state of California are taking steps to address some of the remaining chronic safety issues, like homelessness and petty crime. In San Jose, the city government is addressing homelessness by opening shelters for temporary overnight accommodations for the unhoused, with case managers on hand who can help them move toward permanent housing. At the same time, the city is converting motels to housing units, providing alternatives to the homeless encampments that hundreds of people in the city occupy. At the same time, the state legislature has passed new laws that make it easier for law enforcement to address crimes like shoplifting and auto burglaries.

Crime and cost of living are frequently the top factors in choosing a city to live in or move to. While San Jose is the safest city in the US in the 2025 study, other studies show that it's also the most expensive major city to move to in 2025. The average house price is $1,426,853.00, and an average renter needs a salary of at least $136,000 to keep their monthly housing cost below 30% of their income, even with California's rent control laws. Home buyers need an annual income of $370,000. Despite this, WalletHub found San Jose to be the second-happiest city in America in 2025, partly because residents have the longest life expectancy in the country, a low divorce rate, good community involvement, and enough income for life's necessities and a few luxuries.