Athens named one of Alabama’s safest cities in new study

With real estate still hot in Alabama, folks looking to relocate within the state surely take into account how safe a community is when deciding where they want to live. So if safety is what you are looking for, then Athens is a great place to consider.

Athens was recently named one of Alabama’s safest cities in a recent study by Uphomes.com. And rightly so.

Alabama’s 15 Safest Cities

Uphomes.com, an online real estate guide, studied cities in Alabama to come up with a list of the state’s safest cities, and North Alabama was represented on the list by three cities: Athens, Muscle Shoals and Rainsville.

The study looked at indirect factors like poverty rates to broaden the scale of the study. However, these factors are weighted less than crime rates because poverty rates and income alone don’t determine whether or not a city is safe.

Uphomes considered the following in its rankings:

• City violent crime rate — 35%
• City nonviolent crime rate — 30%
• FEMA index rating — 15%
• Median household income — 5%
• Poverty rate — 5%
• Cost of living — 5%
• Population density — 5%

Here’s the list of Alabama’s Safest Cities from Uphomes.com:

1. Headland
2. Pell City
3. Rainbow City
4. Southside
5. Monrieville
6. Muscle Shoals
7. Gardendale
8. Rainsville
9. Mountain Brook
10. Glencoe
11. Margaret
12. Athens
13. Pelham
14. Satsuma
15. Helena

How Athens was ranked among Alabama’s safest cities

Athens has the sixth lowest violent crime rate in Alabama, though the nonviolent crime rate is higher, coming in 31st. The cost of living in Athens is 13.8% below the national average, which is one of the reasons Athens is the 12th safest city in Alabama.

Athens’ FEMA score was 73.59, which also helped its ranking.

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