AdvisorSmith broke down all 180 cities in the state of Washington by population -- large, midsize and small -- to find out where are the safest places to live in the state, and every city in the immediate Tri-City vicinity, Pasco and Richland in the large town category, West Richland in the midsize column, scored a top ten ranking.

Kennewick was just outside the top ten for large cities, those towns with 50,000 or more residents, placing 11th. Spokane was last among the big cities, three spots lower than Seattle, even worse than Tacoma.

Using data on crimes reported by cities and law enforcement within the state, the study calculated a crime score for each place based upon the number of reported crimes and the mix of crimes committed in each city. The crime score rightly weights more severe crimes against people than say, property crimes. The data was provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Crimes reported in this data crunch include rape, robbery, murder, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Data was used from the most recent study publication, which details reported crimes from the calendar year 2019.

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Among large cities in Washington with over 50,000 residents, the average crime score was 64. Crime scores ranged between 10 and 127 for large cities in the state.

The safest large city in Washington is Sammamish. Their average crime score was 9.9. Kirkland was a distant second with a 31.5 score. Sammamish is smashing. Richland's score was 41.1, Pasco's was 41.9 good for 7th and 8th place, respectively, Kennewick's score was 61.4, good for a number 11 ranking. Yakima was 16th.

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In the midsize category West Richland was 9th best in the state, Sunnyside was 40th and Walla Walla wallowed near the lower third of the midsize list at number 47, Moses Lake a notch worse in 48th place.

In the small city category Colville was #1, top of the pops, Zillah was 26th, Connell ranked 28th, Prosser was 52nd and poor old Union Gap was absolutely last. The worst of the small fry worst at number 94.

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