California is home to some of the most dangerous cities in US — Bay Area near bottom of safety ranking

California is home to some of the USA’s most iconic cities, but many also rank among its least safe.

A new study by SmartAsset found San Francisco, Oakland, Stockton and Riverside among the nation’s least-safe large cities, with San Francisco and Oakland both landing in the bottom 10.

The personal finance site ranked 83 US cities with populations of at least 250,000 using violent crime, property crime, traffic fatality rates and disaster risk. Twelve California cities made the list, though none ranked among the 10 safest.

Oakland posted the nation’s second-highest crime rate at 19.3 incidents per 1,000 residents, trailing only Memphis. Stockton had a relatively high disaster risk but more moderate crime levels, while San Francisco and Stockton shared the highest traffic fatality rate in the study at 18.5 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Despite relatively moderate violent and property crime rates, Irvine and Santa Ana failed to crack the top 10 safest cities because both received the highest possible disaster risk scores, driven largely by wildfire and earthquake threats.

San Francisco and Riverside posted lower crime rates than Oakland, while Stockton paired moderate crime with a relatively high disaster risk and tied San Francisco for the nation’s highest traffic fatality rate at 18.5 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Virginia Beach, Virginia, ranked as the nation’s safest city thanks to below-average violent and property crime rates, a relatively low traffic fatality rate of about seven deaths per 100,000 residents, and a low FEMA disaster risk score measuring expected disaster losses, social vulnerability and community resilience.

Among the 12 Texas cities included in the rankings, the Lone Star State is unique in having cities in both the top 10 safest (Plano and Laredo) and the 10 least safe (Dallas and Houston).

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