The safest cities in Georgia are not the smallest.
A new study from personal finance website ValuePenguin ranked 99 cities in Georgia with populations above 5,000 to see which had the lowest crime rates.
A surprise for the analysts: among the top five safest are towns that are both wealthy and middle class and cities that are small, medium and large in size.
At the top of the list was Johns Creek, population 84,000, in Fulton County, rising up from the No. 2 spot last year.
Milton, Flowery Branch and Tyrone maintained their spots in the Top 5 from 2015, though Flowery Branch beat out Milton for the number 3 spot. This year Grovetown made it into the Top 5 for the first time.
The Top 5 safest cities were:
1. Johns Creek, population 84,256
2. Grovetown, population 12,676
3. Flowery Branch, population 6,259
4. Milton, population 36,702
5. Tyrone, population 7,107
ValuePenguin measured property crimes (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson), and violent crimes (murder/manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) from all law enforcement agencies that submitted universal crime reports to the FBI. (Not all cities submit those reports.)
The analysts standardized the data per 100,000 population, and weighted violent crimes more heavily than property crimes.
For the full ranking of all 99 cities go to ValuePenguin.
RELATED: Are these Georgia's 10 safest cities? A ranking by SafeWise used FBI data from crimes reported in 2014 in 100 Georgia cities.
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