The Safest Cities on Colorado’s Western Slope
We lock our cars, lock our doors and we allow ourselves to feel safe. But is the Western Slope one of the safest places to live in Colorado? Let's see if Safewise thinks so.
In analyzing how safe an area is, they took property crime and criminal activity into account to help determine how safe an area is.
Property crimes are those crimes that include burglary, theft, vandalism and more. While violent crimes are those crimes such as murder, rape or any crime that ends in or involves violence.
19. Fruita
Fruita, with a population of 12,825 comes in at number 19. While not very many violent crimes occur in Fruita, they have 14 property crimes per 1,000 people.
18. Delta
With a smaller population, you automatically get a safer environment, right? Not always. Delta, with a population of 8,778 has a higher property crime rate than Fruita at number 19, they have a lower violent crime rate, which is weighted more than property crimes when determining the safety of an area.
10. Aspen
Aspen rarely sees violent crime, and their low rate puts them in the top 10 safest cities in Colorado. Property crime, showing a nearly 47% rate per 1000 people is the highest on this list.
9. Eagle
Like Aspen, very few violent crimes happen in Eagle, and property crimes per 1,000 people are low as well.
8. Gypsum
Neighboring towns like these can share many statistics, and these two are no exception. Gypsum, with a lower violent crime rate, ranks just ahead of its neighbor.
Using FBI statistics from 2016 and weighing the crimes by looking at it per 1,000 instead of lumping total crimes together makes the playing field a bit fairer.