Bike riders and strollers alike enjoy walking and riding through Corwin M. Nixon Park in Mason.(photo/Tony Tribble)
When Mason native Matthew Bailey purchased his home five years, he chose to stay in Mason largely due to the city’s low crime rate.
“When I was in high school, my house was egged once or twice, but that’s about it,” said the 28-year-old teacher. “Mason is a great place to be.”
Now, a new ranking of America’s cities confirms it: Mason was named the 100th safest city in America by NeighborhoodScout, a community data research service owned by Location, Inc.
“We’re very blessed to live in a city that has a great quality of life and great police and fire departments that contribute to that,” said Mason City Manager Eric Hansen.
Each year, NeighborhoodScout publishes a list of the top 100 Safest Cities in America, which is calculated using municipalities with 25,000 or more in population, and based on the total number of crimes per 1,000 residents.
Data used for this research is based on the uniform crime reports submitted to the FBI by each city nationwide. Crimes analyzed include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, homicide, forcible rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Mason is safer than 64 percent of U.S. cities, according to the report. Your chances of becoming a victim of violent crime in Mason are 1 in 3,104, compared to Cincinnati’s rate of 1 in 96 and Ohio’s average of 1 in 325.
In 2011, Mason reported two rapes, one robbery, seven assaults, 10 motor vehicle thefts, 54 burglaries and 377 thefts.
Mason is one of five Ohio cities and the only city in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area to make the list this year. Other Ohio cities listed are Upper Arlington (88), Brunswick (83), Dublin (54) and North Ridgeville (21). Franklin, Mass. ranked the safest city in the nation.
In addition to its low crime rate, the city of nearly 32,000 — the 46th largest community in Ohio — was noted for its educated, mostly white-collar workforce, high home values and home ownership rates, good schools and ethnic diversity.
In 2011, Money magazine ranked Mason the 24th best place to live in its survey of smaller towns and cities. That ranking was based on factors such as job opportunities, top-notch schools, safe streets, good weather, things to do and economic strength, among others.
Mason’s low crime rate isn’t all that makes it stand out. According to NeighborhoodScout:
- Almost 90 percent of Mason’s workforce work in white-collar jobs, which is well above the national average.
- Mason is one of the more educated communities in the U.S., with more than 50 percent of adults having a college degree or advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84 percent.
- More people live in Mason who work in computers and math than 95 percent of the places in the U.S.
- The 2010 per capita income in Mason was $36,896. According to the U.S. Census, the 2011 per capita income in Ohio was $25,618.
- Mason real estate is among the most expensive in Ohio, with a median home value of $204,380.
