Indiana’s 10 Safest Cities of 2021

1. Zionsville
2. Westfield
3. Carmel
4. Fishers
5. West Lafayette
6. Crown Point
7. Noblesville
8. Brownsburg
9. Greenfield
10. Munster

See if your city made the full list.

Overall, 44% of Indianans we surveyed said they feel highly concerned about their safety while 48% said they feel safe in The Hoosier State. For the second year in a row, this level of daily concern has dropped. And property crime and violent crime rates continue to drop in Indiana.

Compared to neighboring states like Illinois, Indiana falls far below in levels of concern on all issues. But property crime continues to stay on the minds of Hoosiers across the state.

We saw a drop of 6 percentage points in overall concern from Indiana residents in 2021, with this year’s level of concern placing Indiana at number 32 for overall concern in the country.

We saw a significant drop in those who experienced gun crime from last year (34%) to this year (10%). But those we surveyed experienced more property crime this year (20%) than in 2020 (7%).

We asked Indianans which crimes they worry may happen to them. See if Indiana residents are concerned about the same crime issues as the rest of the country.

View the complete 2021 State of Safety report.

Of the Hoosiers we surveyed, 45% said they were concerned about violent crime on a daily basis. The good news is violent crime has dropped slightly year over year since 2019, landing Indiana at the national average. 

• Aggravated assault was the most common and accounted for 67% of violent crimes in Indiana. 
• The percentage of rapes reported in the safest cities was much higher than those statewide. In Indiana as a whole, rape accounts for 10% of violent crime versus the 22% of violent crime in the safest cities.
• Zionsville, the safest city, reported only 4 violent crimes in the last year, all of them aggravated assault. 
• 8 of the safest cities have violent crime rates below 1 per 1,000 people. 
• 3 cities (Fishers, West Lafayette, and Crown Point) had the same violent crime rates year over year. 

• There were 3 fewer mass shooting incidents in Indiana than last year. 
• 60% of Indianans say they’re concerned about gun violence in general and 44% are worried it might happen to them. 
• 32% of Hoosiers use some kind of personal protection like pepper spray or stun guns to stay safe. 
• 40% say their personal safety has been affected by the pandemic.

Property crime was the top concern for 50% of Indiana residents we surveyed. In reality, property crime rates have been dropping in The Hoosier State since 2019. As of 2021, the state falls below the national average but slightly above the East North Central regional average. 

• Larceny-theft is the most common type of property crime in Indiana, accounting for almost three quarters of property crime. The percentage is even higher in the safest cities, accounting for 87% of property crimes committed within those cities.
• Every safest city saw cases of larceny-theft. Zionsville was the only city with fewer than 100. 
• Munster saw a drop of 1.9 property crime cases per 1,000 people in the last year, the biggest improvement of any of the safest cities in this category.
• 56% of Indiana residents use some kind of property protection. Security cameras and guard dogs tied for 27% of those folks as the favored method. 
• 31% of Indianans said their property was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• Zionsville, Indiana’s safest city, is a newcomer to the list this year. Greenfield is also new to the list. 
• Zionsville and Crown Point were the only safest cities to see less than 10 violent crimes in the last year.
• Carmel and Fishers each dropped one spot this year, the only two cities to drop in ranking on our list.
• The most-improved ranking this year was a 5-way tie between Westfield, Crown Point, Noblesville, Brownsburg, and Munster.
• Of the most-improved-ranking cities, the most notable improvement was in Noblesville where property crime rates dropped from 13.2 (2017) to 9.3 incidents per 1,000 people (2019).
• Carmel was the only safest city to report murders in the last year. 

Learn how we identified the safest cities on our methodology page.

Whether your city made our list or not, we encourage everyone to be proactive about home security. 

We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population. See how the remaining cities ranked in the list below.

NOTE: If you don’t see your city on the list, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2019.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

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FBI: Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “2019 Crime in the United States,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed November 18, 2020.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 6, 2021.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 15, 2021.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 15, 2021.

For definitions and more on data sources, see our methodology page.