Eighty percent of Twin Cities residents feel safe walking alone at night, representing the highest percentage among 50 major metro areas studied.
 
That’s according to the results of a recently released Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which tracks well being in the United States and aims to provide solutions for a healthier world. Gallup reported that 72 percent of residents in all 50 major metro areas studied reported feeling safe walking alone at night in the area where they live.
 
The Twin Cities area was followed closely by Denver and Raleigh, North Carolina, cities where 78 percent of residents reporting feeling safe. Meanwhile, Boston; Salt Lake City; and Austin, Texas, rounded out the top cities on the list, as 77 percent of the individuals surveyed in each of those metro areas reported feeling secure while taking a late night stroll.
 
Among the 50 cities studied, Memphis, Tennessee, was at the bottom of the list: Only 55 percent of its residents feel secure. New Orleans, Louisiana, ranked 49th, with 59 percent of its residents feeling safe, and Riverside, California, ranked 48th, with 61 percent of people there feeling safe.
 
Last year, Minneapolis and Boston tied for the highest percentage of residents saying they feel safe while walking alone at night; 79 percent of the individuals surveyed reported feeling secure.
 
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index included data gathered in 2012 phone interviews with a random sample of residents living in the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. (Click here for the survey’s full methodology.) The Minnesota sample size was 7,611.
 
Interestingly but perhaps not surprisingly, the cities where residents reported feeling safest generally have lower crime rates than cities where fewer people feel secure, Gallup found.
 
Gallup said that FBI 2010 violent crime statistics weren’t available for Minneapolis. But according to Minneapolis Police Department statistics, 3,872 cases of violent crime were reported in 2012, up 4 percent from the previous year.