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Low crime
Rank Metro area Crime (rate per 100,000 inhabitants) Violent crime (rate per 100,000 inhabitants) Property crime (rate per 100,000 inhabitants)
1 Logan, UT 1,409.6 74.4 1,335.2
2 Harrisonburg, VA 1,858.5 165 1,693.5
3 Weirton, WV 1,864.9 177.7 1,687.2
4 Kingston, NY 1,890.9 249.3 1,641.6
5 Lebanon, PA 1,951.4 250.2 1,701.2
6 Wausau, WI 1,967.8 191.2 1,776.6
7 Wheeling, WV 1,991.2 172.6 1,818.6
8 Glens Falls, NY 2,022.5 181 1,841.5
9 State College, PA 2,038.5 100.5 1,938
10 Fond du Lac, WI 2,086.7 211.4 1,875.3
11 Sioux Falls, SD 2,175.5 202.6 1,972.9
12 New York City, NY 2,248.1 414.3 1,833.8
13 Lynchburg, VA 2,251.8 233.7 2,018.1
14 Poughkeepsie, NY 2,257.9 287.1 1,970.8
15 Monroe, MI 2,291 188.4 2,102.6
16 Johnstown, PA 2,294.3 216.7 2,077.6
17 Bismarck, ND 2,307 167.5 2,139.5
18 Bridgeport, CT 2,307.4 306.7 2,000.7
19 Naples, FL 2,318.5 423.8 1,894.7
20 Worcester, MA 2,334.2 379.1 1,955.1
21 Harrisburg, PA 2,342.1 319.8 2,022.3
22 Lancaster, PA 2,344.9 202.8 2,142.1
23 Carson City, NV 2,349.6 369.8 1,979.8
24 Eau Claire, WI 2,384.1 100.3 2,283.8
25 Williamsport, PA 2,392.4 141.8 2,250.6
Source: FBI Crime in the United States, 2007.
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 Affordable wages  Few foreclosures
 Educated workers  Low housing costs
 Low crime  High local incomes
 A growing economy  Population growth
 Growing small business population

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This year we partnered with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to find the 50 most business-friendly communities in America.

With help from Robert Fairlie, an economist and leading scholar of entrepreneurship at the University of California, Santa Cruz, we developed a methodology and sifted through such data on factors such as per capita income, hourly wages, workforce quality, crime rates, taxes and foreclosures. More

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Data partners

This package was produced in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Foreclosure data provided by RealtyTrac.

Housing price-to-income data provided by Moody's Economy.com.