Providence Top 10 Peaceful City in the US
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
How peaceful is Providence? In the first-ever "peace ranking" of major metropolitan areas, Providence has scored incredibly high--in the Top 10 nationally, in fact.
The United States Peace Report, a major study just released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP),has for the first time added cities to its assessment of its Peace Index. And Providence has arrived at a remarkable #6 in the nation.
The most peaceful places in America
Top honors went to the Cambridge-Newton-Framingham metropolitan area, according to the 2012 Metropolitan Peace Index, followed by Edison-New Brunswick, NJ (#2), Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA (#3), Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN/WI (#4), and Peabody, MA (#5).
The next New England city in the ranking was Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT, at #13. No other major cities in the region made the Top 20.
The least peaceful places
In the Metropolitan Peace Index, the least peaceful places were largely southern. The bottom five were, in declining order: Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX; Baltimore-Towson, MD; Miami-Miami Beach-Kendal, FL; New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA; and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI, which came in last at #61.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Island's ranking
In the report's state-by-state analysis, Rhode Island placed at #9 this year, down one spot from its #8 ranking last year. New England states dominated this year's Top 3: Maine, which took the #1 spot again for the 11th year in a row, followed by Vermont at #2 and New Hampshire at #3. Massachusetts took the #12 spot, and Connecticut #14. At the bottom of the ranking, the bottom three were, in order, Nevada (#48), Tennessee (#49), and Louisiana (#50).
What makes a place peaceful?
The IEP, an independent, non-partisan and non-profit research organization, put together a series of metrics to define a place's Peace Index using 5 indicators:
Number of homicides per 100,000 people (FBI, Uniform Crime Report, 2010)
Number of violent crimes per 100,000 people (FBI Uniform Crime Report, 2010)
Incarceration rate per 100,000 people (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2010)
Number of police employees per 100,000 people (FBI Uniform Crime Report, 2010)
Availability of small arms (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Fatal Injury Reports, 2005-2009)
From here, the IEP weighted homicides and violent crime the most in their equation (4x) , incarceration and police employees equally (3x), and small arms at 1x. The result yielded a snapshot not only of each state, but also the largest metropolitan areas nationally.
Major findings nationally
According to IEP, the US is more peaceful now than at any other time over the last 20 years. Other major findings include:
- Maine is the most peaceful state for the 11th consecutive year, Louisiana least peaceful state.
- Wyoming has improved the most while Arizona records the biggest fall.
- Cambridge metro area is the most peaceful, Detroit the least peaceful.
- The U.S. is more peaceful than at any time in the last 20 years.
- Further improvements in peacefulness would generate hundreds of billions of extra economic activity.
How the Northeast fared
The IEP also combined the 6 New England states with Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, in a Northeast regional snapshot. Making up 18% of the total US population, the Northeast is both the smallest and most peaceful region in the US, with the lowest average score on every indicator other than police employees. Only one Northeastern state fell outside of the top 30, at that was New York at #31.
According to IEP, the correlation between population and peacefulness was very strong in the Northeast; the five most peaceful states all have populations smaller than five million.
For more information on this year's Peace Index, including the full report, go here.
For a visual look at the data, watch the video, here.
For more coverage, don't miss GoLocalTV, fresh every day at 4pm and on demand 24/7, here.
