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Safest Places to Live in West Virginia of March 2025

Elite Personal Finance

Last Update: December 1, 2024 • Living •

West Virginia is located in the Appalachian region of the Southern United States. You might wonder why this is considered as the south, and you are right. Geographically speaking, it is not the south of the US. Rather, this division was made because the states in the Southern US were members of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

West Virginia borders its older sister Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. With over 1.8 million residents, it is the 38th most populous state in the US. The capital and the largest city is Charleston, which has approximately 50,000 residents.

West Virginia is a unique state because it was separated from Virginia during the Civil War. It became a state in 1861 and was a key border state during the Civil War. West Virginia is known for its mountains and rolling hills, logging, coal mining industries, political and labor history, caving, scientific research, skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, and hunting.

Ranking Criteria

ElitePersonalFinance extracted the latest data from the FBI crime statistics in the United States. We took violent crime as the main criteria. To get our score, we used this formula:

Crime Score = ( Total Number of Violent Crimes / Population ) * 1,000

This way, safer cities got the lowest score, and those more vulnerable to crimes got higher scores.

The cities that did not report crimes to the FBI and those under 3,000 residents were not included in the list.

20 Safest Places in West Virginia of March 2025

Rank:	City:	Population:	Total Number of Crimes:	Crime Score:
1	Weirton	18542	9	0,49
2	Barboursville	4 256	3	0,70
3	Buckhannon	5 516	4	0,73
4	Lewisburg	3 917	3	0,77
5	Point Pleasant	4 126	4	0,97
6	Bridgeport	8708	9	1,03
7	Summersville	3 332	4	1,20
8	Oak Hill	8264	13	1,57
9	Charles Town	6 060	10	1,65
10	St. Albans	10161	19	1,87
11	Moundsville	8417	17	2,02
12	Vienna	10306	23	2,23
13	Morgantown	30855	82	2,66
14	Weston	3 953	11	2,78
15	Ranson	5 292	15	2,83
16	Martinsburg	17428	55	3,16
17	Fairmont	18430	63	3,42
18	South Charleston	12357	47	3,80
19	Nitro	6 509	25	3,84
20	Ravenswood	3 720	16	4,30

Crime Score in All Cities in West Virginia of March 2025

If your city didn’t make our list, you could see our full list of West Virginia cities.

We can’t compare crime rates in small and large cities. That’s why ElitePersonalFinance made a detailed analysis and narrowed the results according to population segments:

Under 3,000 Residents
3,000 – 10,000 Residents
Over 10,000 Residents

(Other sites don’t include places with under 3,000 residents, but we included them.)

These are the results that we got:

Under 3,000 Residents

Rank:	City:	Population:	Total Number of Crimes:	Crime Score:
1	Mason	941	0	0,00
2	Mount Hope	1297	0	0,00
3	Madison	2764	0	0,00
4	Wellsburg	2560	1	0,39
5	Hinton	2417	1	0,41
6	Ceredo	1339	1	0,75
7	Shepherdstown	1757	2	1,14
8	Marmet	1397	2	1,43
9	Kenova	2979	6	2,01
10	Alderson	1151	3	2,61
11	Glen Dale	1398	6	4,29
12	Williamson	2745	16	5,83
13	Moorefield	2417	20	8,27

3,000 – 10,000 Residents

Rank:	City:	Population:	Total Number of Crimes:	Crime Score:
1	Barboursville	4256	3	0,70
2	Buckhannon	5516	4	0,73
3	Lewisburg	3917	3	0,77
4	Point Pleasant	4126	4	0,97
5	Bridgeport	8708	9	1,03
6	Summersville	3332	4	1,20
7	Oak Hill	8264	13	1,57
8	Charles Town	6060	10	1,65
9	Moundsville	8417	17	2,02
10	Weston	3953	11	2,78
11	Ranson	5292	15	2,83
12	Nitro	6509	25	3,84
13	Ravenswood	3720	16	4,30
14	Dunbar	7262	44	6,06
15	Bluefield	9789	92	9,40

Over 10,000 Residents

Rank:	City:	Population:	Total Number of Crimes:	Crime Score:
1	Weirton	18 542	9	0,49
2	St. Albans	10 161	19	1,87
3	Vienna	10 306	23	2,23
4	Morgantown	30 855	82	2,66
5	Martinsburg	17 428	55	3,16
6	Fairmont	18 430	63	3,42
7	South Charleston	12 357	47	3,80
8	Charleston	47 470	331	6,97
9	Wheeling	26 855	229	8,53
10	Beckley	16 234	147	9,06

How safe do you feel?

Is your city safe enough? Are you worried because of the crime rate in your town? Do you have any thoughts on safety levels in the country?

If you want to share anything, feel free to leave a comment. That way, you can help us understand your perspective better.

Thank you!

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