Unfortunately for the people of Memphis, Tennessee, their city was ranked the most dangerous in the country, according to a new study released Tuesday by Clever Real Estate.

The study, which weighed violent crime most heavily and contaminated drinking water least heavily, determined that Memphis was the most dangerous, tallying three times more violent crime than the average city. Denver, Colorado, was the least dangerous, according to the study.

Birmingham, Alabama; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Louisville, Kentucky; and Nashville, Tennessee rounded out the most dangerous metros while San Jose, California; Chicago, Illinois; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Providence, Rhode Island rounded out the least dangerous.

“Memphis earned the top spot on our list with approximately 230 murders, 680 rapes, 3,416 robberies, and 11,017 assaults in 2018,” wrote Francesca Ortegren, a research associate with Clever Real Estate. “Those numbers equate to a rate of about 1,142 violent crimes per 100,000 people in the Memphis area — nearly seven times the rate in Denver.”

The study sought results from entire metro areas (rather than restricting to a city’s population) and evaluated a metro area’s “danger factors” through the following metrics: likelihood to be victim to a crime, natural disaster, traffic fatality, or contaminated drinking water.

Memphis topped the charts at 1,142.5 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Denver, New York City, Chicago, San Antonio and Cincinnati, however, earned the lowest violent crime rates overall. Comparatively, Denver had only 165.7 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.

Memphis also ranked highest for property crime rates while New York City ranked lowest. However, those who live in New York City experienced slightly more natural disasters than their West Coast counterparts living in Los Angeles, both of which scored highest in this metric, whereas residents of Salt Lake City experienced the least amount of natural disasters.

EPA reports detailed Oklahoma City as raking up the most drinking water violations while Detroit earned its place as one of the metros with the fewest water violations.

As for transportation fatalities, Birmingham was pinged with the most while San Francisco and Boston were nearly equal in claiming the least number of transportation fatalities.

Email Lillian Dickerson

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