A new Gallup survey shows people feel safer in the Twin Cities than any other major metropolitan area in the country.
Eighty percent of Minneapolis-St. Paul residents polled said they feel safe walking around at night. That is two percentage points higher than Denver and Raleigh, N.C., which both clocked in at 78 percent.
The results are part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which is derived from interviews with 500 people every day in 2012. The average level of perceived safety in major cities was 72 percent.
"Minneapolis-St. Paul area residents have the highest sense of personal security among Americans living in the nation's top metro areas, at least in terms of feeling safe walking alone at night in their local area," Gallup said in a statement.
"While the rank order of the top 50 on this measure may differ somewhat from other rankings of city safety, it nevertheless offers an important perspective on one aspect of how crime affects people's lives."
Gallup said that 2010 violent crime figures are not available for the Minneapolis area. The FBI's 2011 statistics also do not list a violent crime rate for the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area.
The Memphis, New Orleans, Houston, Riverside, Ontario and Jacksonville, Fl. areas had the lowest perceived safety scores in the index.
Violent crime in just Minneapolis grew about 7.6 percent in 2012 over 2011 figures. The number of violent crimes in the city in 2011 was the lowest in nearly 30 years.
