FBI: Houston seventh-safest big city in US

Even with Houston's crime spike at the end of last year, we still have a long way to go before we catch up with Dallas: According to the FBI, Houston is the seventh safest city in the United States — and guess who tops the list for crime per capita? That's right: the Big D.

Crime statistics from the nation's 10 largest cities came from the FBI's Uniform Crime Statistics report for 2005, which compares the number of reported crimes against population estimates to reach the per-capita numbers. The report for 2005 found that Houston had one crime per 14.17 residents, making us slightly safer than San Antonio (one crime per 14.12 residents), but a little on the dangerous side compared with Philadelphia (one crime per 17.96 residents). Dallas ranks as the least safest of the 10 largest cities, with one crime per 11.79 residents; the safest of the 10 is New York, with one crime per 37.38 residents. Not bad. And don't worry: With our increasing crime rate this year, we're sure Houston will move up on the 2006 list.

Here's the full top 10 list, ranked from safest to least safe. Check out the full FBI report here.

1. New York (1 crime per 37.38 residents)
2. San Jose, Calif. (1 crime per 34.46 residents)
3. Los Angeles (1 crime per 25.97 residents)
4. San Diego (1 crime per 24.09 residents)
5. Chicago (1 crime per 21.9 residents)
6. Philadelphia (1 crime per 17.96 residents)
7. Houston (1 crime per 14.17 residents)
8. San Antonio (1 crime per 14.12 residents)
9. Phoenix (1 crime per 14.10 residents)
10. Dallas (1 crime per 11.79 residents)