Irvine California Leads List of Top 10 Safest U.S. Cities

---

When looking to purchase property in the U.S., one factor to consider is how safe a city is when compared to others. 

Using violent crime data from the FBI, U.S.-based law and public policy website Law Street created a list of the top 10 safest U.S. cities with a population greater than 200,000 people.

For the list, violent crime is defined by the total number of murders, aggravated assaults, robberies and forcible rapes occurred in 2012.

Topping the list, the safest city is Irvine, California with a violent crime rate of 50.57 per 100,000 people. The city has a population of 217,528 residents and an officer to population ratio of 1:1083. The city's unemployment rate is 5.7 percent. Irvine also ranked number one in Law Street's list for 2011. 

California and Texas each had three cities in the list. The state of Arizona had two.

Here are Law Street's top 10 safest cities over 200,000 in the U.S.

1. IRVINE, CALIF.