Naperville ranked No. 19 on U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-26 list of “Safest Places to Live in the U.S.,” tying with Palatine and coming in after Buffalo Grove at No. 18 and Arlington Heights at No. 12.
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To create the list, U.S. News looked at various cities’ murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people, with data pulled from FBI crime reports for 859 cities. U.S. News then ranked the top 25 cities in the country based on that data.
It is not the first time this year Naperville has made it onto a list for U.S. News and World Report. The city also ranked No. 3 for U.S. News’ “Best Places to Live in Illinois” and No. 76 on the broader “Best Places to Live in the U.S.” list.
Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove also beat out Naperville on the Illinois best places to live list, coming in at No. 1 and No. 2.
According to a report from the Naperville Police Department, crime was down in the city in 2024 compared to 2023, although Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres has previously emphasized that crime has stayed relatively consistent over the past three years.
The Naperville police break down its annually reported crime data into three categories: property crimes, personal crimes and crimes against society.
Property crime made up 64% of Naperville’s reported crime last year, but was down overall by about 4% compared to 2023. Property crime dropped by about 112 cases last year, going from 2,599 incidents in 2023 to 2,487 in 2024. This trend was the opposite of property crime cases from 2022 to 2023, which saw a rise of about 192 cases.
Personal crime, which police measure by the number of victims not incidents, also saw fewer people victimized in 2024 than in 2023, with reported crimes totaling 1,000 last year compared to 1,167 in 2023. From 2022 to 2023, personal crime changed by less than a percent.
There was one homicide in Naperville in 2024, which police say was related to a domestic incident. There were two murders in 2022 and none in 2023.
Cities that ranked at the top of U.S. News’ list of safest cities include John’s Creek, Georgia, at No. 1; Centreville, Virginia, at No. 2; Newton, Massachusetts, at No. 3; Rochester Hills, Michigan, at No. 4; and Homosassa Springs, Florida, at No. 5.
John’s Creek also took the top slot on U.S. News’ nationwide list for the best places to live.
It is also not the first time Naperville has been noted for its safety compared to other U.S. cities. In 2024, MoneyGeek ranked Naperville the eighth safest U.S. city in which to live, a drop from the city’s prior first-place slot a year earlier.
MoneyGeek’s yearly analysis sorts localities by their cost of crime per capita. Last year, Naperville’s crime cost per capita was found to be $402, which was more than double in 2023 when Naperville came out on top with a crime cost per capita of $156.
MoneyGeek’s rankings took cities’ crime statistics reported to the FBI and paired that data with academic research on the societal cost of different types of crimes. The organization relied on research by professors Kathryn McCollister and Michael French of the University of Miami and Hai Fang of the University of Colorado in Denver, the report said.
The rankings for last year were based on the assessment of 302 cities with populations of 100,000 or more across the U.S. MoneyGeek also noted in its report last year that data was limited for a handful of states, including Illinois. The organization left out any cities that did not report murder and rape.