It may seem like we're hearing about more violent crime in and close to New York City over the past year? Is the Empire State an unsafe place to live? According to one study, the state, as a whole, isn't so bad after all. In fact, according to ConsumerAffairs, eight of the top ten safest states in the country are in the Northeast. New Jersey even topped the list at #1. Do you agree with these findings?

ConsumerAffairs said that they took into account violent crime, property crime, the number of law enforcement officers, and law enforcement spending using data from the FBI and Census Bureau. Overall, New York ranked as the eighth safest state to live, according to the methodology they used. We ranked high due to the number of law enforcement officers to residents (1 per 335). We also had low property crime rates, according to the data.

But if you're thinking this only applies to small, rural communities upstate, the study took into account safety in cities and towns of all sizes. Two Lower Hudson Valley spots even made the list as the state's safest places to live. ConsumerAffairs goes on to say that the safest largest city in the state is actually Yonkers. The Town of Mamaroneck was named the safest midsize town.

Vermont was #5. Connecticut ranked #6, and Massachusetts #10 overall. Pennsylvania was #14. The country's least safest state to live? Well, you might want to avoid Arkansas. But if Arkansas sounds like a nice place to get away, you can visit a town down there with a very familiar name.

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