Crime & Safety in South Burlington
South Burlington's real, current crime picture carries a genuine, disclosed, and notably sharp cross-source tension this record does not resolve to one clean framing: WalletHub named South Burlington the #1 safest city in America in 2024, yet a separate, more granular 2026 citation puts the total crime rate meaningfully above a cited national comparison figure.
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Learn moreA High-Profile 2024 Safety Award
WalletHub named South Burlington the #1 safest city in America in 2024, out of 182 U.S. cities compared across 41 safety indicators spanning home/community safety, financial stability, and natural-disaster risk -- citing among other factors the nation's lowest cited unemployment rate (1.9%), one of the lowest pedestrian-fatality rates in the country, and the ninth-most EMTs/paramedics per capita.
A Separate, More Granular 2026 Citation Tells a Different Story
A separate, differently-sourced 2026 citation put South Burlington's total crime rate at approximately 4,619.7 per 100,000 -- described by that same source as approximately 118% ABOVE its own cited national comparison rate of 2,119.2 per 100,000 -- even while a different citation described overall crime as 50% BELOW the national average, an internally disclosed tension this record surfaces rather than smooths over.
Violent Crime Ran More Favorably; Property Crime Rose in 2025
Violent crime specifically was cited more favorably (234.7 per 100,000; South Burlington in the 55th percentile for violent-crime safety, i.e., safer than 55% of comparison cities), while property crime was cited rising 7% in 2025 versus 2024, even as violent crime has reportedly declined over a trailing five-year window.
This Record Did Not Reconcile the Award Against the Granular Data
This record did not independently reconcile the 2024 WalletHub award against the differently-methodology 2026 granular crime-rate citations -- a real, disclosed gap. Movers should research current, address-specific crime data directly via the South Burlington Police Department's own published statistics rather than relying on any single citywide framing (award or otherwise) in isolation.
Key takeaways
- WalletHub named South Burlington the #1 safest city in America in 2024, out of 182 cities compared across 41 indicators.
- A separate, more granular 2026 citation put South Burlington's total crime rate approximately 118% above its own cited national comparison figure -- a real, disclosed tension this record does not resolve.
- Violent crime ran more favorably (55th percentile for safety), while property crime rose 7% in 2025 versus 2024.
- Research current, address-specific data directly via the South Burlington Police Department rather than relying on any single citywide framing.
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