If you live in Richland, you already know it is a great place to raise a family and build a career, but now a new study backs that up.
SmartAsset’s annual ranking of America’s Safest Midsize Cities just dropped, and Richland is named as the number one safest midsize city in Washington state and the 78th safest in the entire country.

More than 300 cities were evaluated in the study, and that is not a small accomplishment for a city of this size.
How the Study Measured a Safe City
The ranking used four specific factors: violent crime rate, property crime rate, motor vehicle fatality rate, and natural disaster risk. They used that data to build a composite score for every city with a population between 65,000 and 250,000.
Richland’s numbers are really impressive, with only 2.50 violent crimes per 1,000 residents and 19.40 property crimes per 1,000 residents. For comparison, the national conversation around urban crime has been dominated by cities posting violent crime rates three to five times higher than those.
Richland’s motor vehicle fatality rate came in at 8.83 per 100,000 residents, reasonable for a city with significant highway access and regional traffic.
This Matters for Richland Residents
Safety is not just a statistic. It is what determines whether people feel comfortable letting their kids walk to school, whether small businesses thrive, and whether families choose to stay long-term rather than look elsewhere.
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