One of America’s Top 5 Safest College Towns is in Idaho

While your high school junior or senior is looking at factors like majors, athletics, Greek life and maybe how good the food in the dining hall is, campus safety is one of the factors you’re most concerned about during the college search. 

And rightfully so. It wasn’t all that long ago that one of the schools that may be on your child’s shortlist, the University of Washington, was on the list of the most dangerous college campuses in America. When Degree Choices put together a list of the 27 Most Dangerous College Campuses for 2023, the school landed at #25 with 80 violent crimes reported on campus from 2019-2021. Those crimes included 48 rapes, 16 robberies and 16 aggravated assaults. When they refreshed that list for 2024, the school didn’t make the list. Which is great news. 

READ MORE: Huge Tuition Makes This Idaho High School One of America's Most Expensive

Are you ready for some even better news? If your student is thinking about staying in state to continue their education, one of America’s safest college towns is right here in Idaho. 

Idaho is Home to #2 Safest College Town in America

Research.com recently shared a report of the 50 Safest College Towns in America in 2024. Their metrics were a little different than what Degree Choices looked at. They didn’t just consider crime statistics on campuses. They also looked at FBI violent crime and property crime rate for the entire town. 

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Milton, Massachusetts which is home to Curry College too the #1 spot, but right behind it? You’ll find Rexburg, home of BYU-Idaho, which they list with a violent crime rate of .2 and property crime rate of 4.7. 

In putting Rexburg on the list, they said: 

The City of Rexburg is the second safest college town in America. Located in Madison County, Idaho, the city also ranked as the 39th safest city in the U.S. Only a total of five violent crimes and 135 property crimes were reported. It is often considered as “America’s family community" mainly due to its low crime rate.

Author’s Note: While it’s a cool honor for Rexburg to be on the list, the stats may be a bit outdated. Neighborhood Scout, which provides the most up to date crime data for most cities in America, lists the city’s violent crime rate at .84 and property crime rate at 3.73. 

We checked after noticing that Moscow was also on the list at #48…it seemed strange considering they looked at crimes that happened off campus, too. Somehow they didn’t mention the University of Idaho murders and that’s when we realized the data was pulled from years BEFORE the crime took place.