The 15 safest states to live in, based on 2010 crime rankings

Updated
New Hampshire town
New Hampshire town

The results of CQ Press's annual State Crime Rankings are in and, for some states, the results are reassuring. For nearly two decades, these rankings have shown how the 50 states compare against the national average for six crimes: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.

According to CQ Press, these six categories are compared to the national reported crime rates and then indexed (with each of the crimes carrying equal weight) to create a summary score and ranking across six areas of reported violent and property crime. It is also important to note that larceny-theft, which accounts for 59% of all reported crimes in America, is not included as part of this report because the FBI and other criminologists concluded in 2004 this was no longer a true indicator of crime.

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