A new report from the Congressional Quarterly ranks the State College Metropolitan Area as the safest in the country. The annual report uses FBI crime statistics collected from local law enforcement agencies. The study takes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft numbers and compiles a score and compares it to the national averages.

Last year, State College was ranked 2nd.

Following State College in the top 5 are Sheboygan, WI; Appleton, WI; Bangor, ME; and last year’s number 1: Logan, UT.

I looked through the rankings for other Big Ten Areas and discovered that the second safest is Bloomington, IN (home of the University of Indiana) at number 50. Madison, WI (University of Wisconsin) was close behind at 56th, and everybody’s favorite female-named town (Ann Arbor, MI) was 3rd at 137th. The lowest ranked Metropolitan area that houses a Big Ten university is Columbus, OH coming in at an entirely forgettable 278th.

It is also important to note that all of the Big Ten towns except Columbus had crime rates lower than the national average.

It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to say about our town.

I know that I’ll be busting that statistic out when I give campus tours to perspective students. (Yes, I am a Lion Scout)

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