A recent SmartAsset study has ranked Plano as the second safest large city in the United States, following Virginia Beach. This ranking highlights the diverse safety levels found across Texas cities, with Plano and Laredo taking spots in the top 10, while Dallas and Houston are positioned near the bottom.
The study evaluated 83 U.S. cities with populations exceeding 250,000, which encompasses over 90 percent of the nation’s large urban areas. Plano outperformed cities like Madison, Wisconsin; Honolulu; and Chesapeake, Virginia, which completed the top five.
To determine the rankings, the study utilized a composite score based on four different metrics rather than solely focusing on crime statistics. Two of these metrics were sourced from the FBI's 2024 Crime in the United States report, which included violent crimes and property crimes per 1,000 residents.
Additionally, motor vehicle fatalities per 100,000 residents were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while the fourth metric, disaster risk, was derived from FEMA's National Risk Index and converted to a five-point scale.
For Plano, the reported statistics included 1.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, 14.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents, and 6.9 auto fatalities per 100,000 residents. However, the city's disaster risk was rated as "Relatively High," which negatively impacted its overall score despite its strong crime figures.
